The  Story  of 

The  Borgias 


John  Fyvie 


L1BRARV 

UN,VERSITV  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

AN  DIEGO 


THE    STORY    OF 

THE  BORGIAS 


flom  <Jt^-  fte&co-^-u,  i//sn6Ut*4Ccn4<s 


THE    STORY   OF 

THE   BOEGIAS 


AUTHOR  OF  "TRAGEDY  QUEENS  OF  THE 
GEORGIAN  ERA"  ETC 


NEW  YORK 
G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

1913 


PRINTED 

AT  THE  BALLANTYNE  PRESS 

TAVI  STOCK  STREET  Co  VENT  GARDEN 

LONDON 


THE  story  of  the  Borgia  family  has  always  been 
one  of  strangely  fascinating  interest ;  but  a  lurid 
legend  grew  up  about  their  lives,  which  culminated 
in  the  creation  of  the  fantastic  monstrosities  of 
Victor  Hugo's  play  and  Donizetti's  opera.  For 
three  centuries  their  name  was  a  byword  for  the 
vilest  infamy  ;  but  in  our  own  day  there  has  been 
an  extraordinary  swing  of  the  pendulum,  which 
is  hard  to  account  for.  Quite  a  number  of  para- 
doxical writers  have  proclaimed  to  an  astonished 
and  mystified  world  that  Pope  Alexander  VI 
was  both  a  wise  prince  and  a  gentle  priest  whose 
motives  and  actions  have  been  maliciously  mis- 
represented ;  that  Cesare  Borgia  was  a  noble- 
minded  and  enlightened  statesman,  who,  three 
centuries  in  advance  of  his  time,  endeavoured  to 
form  a  united  Italy  by  the  only  means  then  in 
anybody's  power  ;  and  that  Lucrezia  Borgia  was 
a  paragon  of  all  the  virtues. 

It  seems  to  have  been  impossible  to  "  whitewash  " 
the  Borgia  without  a  good  deal  of  juggling  with  the 
evidence,  as  well  as  a  determined  attack  on  the 
veracity  and  trustworthiness  of  the  contemporary 

b  v 


PREFACE 

historians  and  chroniclers  to  whom  we  are  indebted 
for  our  knowledge  of  the  time.  Guicciardini  and 
Burchard,  in  particular,  have  been  singled  out  for 
depreciation  and  abuse.  But  nobody  is  likely  to 
be  much  disturbed  about  Guicciardini 's  essential 
trustworthiness  and  accuracy  after  the  ample  vin- 
dication of  him  which  has  been  given  by  Villari 
in  his  "  History  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  Machia- 
velli."  Nor  has  Burchard's  authority  suffered  in 
the  slightest  degree  by  these  indiscrirninating 
attacks.  He  was  Master  of  the  Ceremonies  at 
the  Vatican  throughout  the  reign  of  Alexander  VI, 
and  he  kept  a  diary,  or  rather  a  note-book,  in 
which  he  jotted  down,  not  officially  but  for  his  own 
private  use,  brief  memoranda  of  anything  connected 
with  the  Pope  or  the  Vatican  which  came  under  his 
observation.  Although  the  details  he  gives  are 
sometimes  highly  indecent,  and  shocking  to  our 
modern  notions,  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
so  to  him.  They  are  set  down  without  comment ; 
he  never  imputes  motives  or  makes  any  reflection 
on  character  ;  he  invariably  speaks  of  his  master 
the  Pope  with  profound  reverence  and  respect, 
and  no  really  competent  authority  has  questioned 
his  good  faith. 

Of  course,  it  is  quite  true  that  we  know  to-day 
a  good  deal  more  about  the  true  history  of  the 

Borgia  than  was  known  when  Victor  Hugo  wrote 
vi 


PREFACE 

his  play,  and  Alexander  Dumas  his  lurid  book  of 
"  Celebrated  Crimes."  Thousane,  in  his  complete 
and  elaborately  annotated  edition  of  Burchard's 
"Diarium,"  Pastor,  in  his  "History  of  the  Popes," 
Creighton,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Papacy," 
Gregorovius,  in  his  "  History  of  the  City  of  Rome 
during  the  Middle  Ages  "  and  in  his  monograph 
on  "  Lucrezia  Borgia,"  Villari,  in  his  "  Life  and 
Times  of  Machiavelli  "  and  in  his  edition  of  the 
"  Dispatches  of  Giustiniani,"  and  Charles  Yriarte, 
in  his  monograph  on  "  Cesare  Borgia  "  (to  name  no 
others),  have  brought  forward  much  fresh  docu- 
mentary evidence  as  well  as  thrown  new  light  on 
the  old.  To  these  works,  as  well  as  to  those  of 
Burckhardt  and  J.  A.  Symonds  on  the  civilisation 
and  culture  of  the  Renascence,  no  succeeding 
writer  on  the  period  can  fail  to  be  heavily  indebted. 
I  wish  also  to  express  my  obligations  to  William 
Gilbert's  biography  of  Lucrezia  Borgia  for 
many  details  of  her  later  life  in  Ferrara ;  and 
for  many  facts  in  my  sketch  of  Francisco  Borja, 
to  the  biography  of  the  saint  by  Father  A.  M. 
Clarke,  S.J. ;  although  I  sincerely  hope  that  nobody 
will  charge  that  good  Jesuit  father  either  with  my 
manner  of  stating  the  facts  or  with  any  of  the 
comments  I  have  ventured  to  make  thereon. 

The  present  volume  makes  no  pretence  of  con- 
taining  fresh  documentary   evidence   or  of  being 

vii 


PREFACE 

the  result  of  original  research.  My  aim  has  been 
to  relate  the  actions  and  depict  the  characters 
of  the  principal  persons  of  the  House  of  Borgia  in 
as  straightforward  and  unbiassed  a  manner  as 
possible  after  a  careful  sifting  of  all  the  evidence 
already  available.  It  may  be  that  the  last  word 
has  not  yet  been  said  on  the  subject :  but  it  seems 
to  be  in  the  highest  degree  unlikely  that  anything 
can  now  be  discovered  which  can  make  any  appre- 
ciable difference  in  the  verdict  of  history  on  this 
extraordinary  family. 

J.F. 


vm 


CONTENTS 

PACK 

I.  INTRODUCTION  1 

II.  THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA  48 

III.  THE  FRENCH  INVASION  74 

IV.  DIVORCE  AND  MURDER  104 
V.  CESARE  BORGIA,  DUKE  OP  ROMAGNA  183 

VI.  LUCREZIA  BORGIA,  PRINCESS  OF  ESTE  165 

VII.  THE  CULMINATION  180 

VIII.  THE  DOWNFALL  208 

IX.  LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY  244 

X.  LUCREZIA  BORGIA,  DUCHESS  OF  FERRARA  262 

XI.  A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA  803 

INDEX  387 


IX 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


RODRIGO  BORGIA  (POPE  ALEXANDER  VI)  Frontispiece 

From  the  fresco  by  Pinturricchio  in  the  Vatican 

To/ace 
page 

CARDINAL  ASCANIO  SFORZA  72 

From  a  medal  in  the  British  Museum 

CESARE  BORGIA  134 

From  a  painting  attributed  to  Leonardo  da  Vinci 

LUCREZIA  BORGIA  264 

After  the  manner  of  Titian,  in  Casa  Pamphili-Doria 

SAINT  FRANCISCO  DE  BOHJA  328 


XI 


I 

INTRODUCTION 

WHEN  Rodrigo  Borgia  ascended  the  Papal  throne, 
as  Alexander  VI,  in  1492,  a  revolution  was  in 
progress  throughout  Europe.  Not  only  was  the 
old  political  order  changing,  but  literature,  art, 
science,  commerce,  and  social  life  were  undergoing 
a  bewildering  transformation.  The  history  of  all 
this  must  be  sought  elsewhere  ;  but  it  is  impossible 
to  form  any  just  estimate  of  the  characters  and 
careers  of  the  Borgia  without  first  making  a  brief 
survey  of  the  social  and  political  conditions  which 
prevailed  in  Italy  towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  Guicciardini  declares  that  at  no  time  for 
a  thousand  years  past  had  Italy  enjoyed  such 
prosperity.  Her  fertile  lands,  he  says,  were  cul- 
tivated to  the  tops  of  the  mountains  ;  her  popula- 
tion and  wealth  were  abundant ;  she  contained 
numerous  and  beautiful  cities  ;  her  various  States 
suffered  under  no  foreign  influence,  but  were 
governed  by  their  own  princes  ;  she  was  remark- 
able for  the  number  of  her  citizens  who  were 
distinguished  in  politics,  in  science,  and  in  every 
noble  art ;  and  within  her  boundaries  was  the 
majestic  seat  of  the  Primate  of  the  Christian 
religion.  But  there  was  also  a  heavy  balance  on 

A  1 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

the  other  side,  which  this  eloquent  historian  omits 
to  mention.  The  Italian  Princedoms  and  Republics 
were  in  a  state  of  perpetual  conflict  with  one 
another ;  bands  of  mercenary  troops,  who  sold 
their  services  to  the  highest  bidder,  plundered  and 
wasted  the  country  from  end  to  end  ;  everywhere 
the  many  were  taxed,  often  to  the  point  of  ex- 
haustion, for  the  benefit  of  the  few  ;  and  in  addition 
to  the  sufferings  which  the  people  of  Italy  had  to 
endure  from  these  causes,  they  were  ravaged  by 
numerous  visitations  of  the  plague,  which  from 
time  to  time  devastated  both  the  cities  and  the 
country  districts. 

The  Eastern  Empire  had  been  recently  over- 
whelmed by  the  conquering  Turks,  who,  firmly 
established  in  Constantinople,  continued  to  extend 
their  boundaries,  and  constituted  a  standing 
menace  to  their  Christian  neighbours.  The 
Western  Empire  still  existed,  but  was  now  restricted 
to  Germany,  and  shorn  of  all  its  power.  The 
independent  fiefs  and  communes  of  the  Middle 
Ages  were  tending  to  disappear ;  and  the  great 
nations  of  modern  Europe  were  in  process  of 
consolidation.  France,  which  under  Louis  XI  had 
permanently  annexed  the  great  duchy  of  Burgundy, 
was  just  on  the  point  of  adding  that  of  Brittany 
also  to  the  hereditary  possessions  of  its  crown. 
Spain,  by  the  union  of  the  crowns  of  Castile  and 
of  Aragon,  held  the  greater  part  of  the  Peninsula, 
and  had  just  driven  the  Moors  from  their  last 
stronghold  in  Granada.  The  consolidating  process, 
which  was  also  at  work  in  Hungary,  in  Poland,  in 
2 


INTRODUCTION 

Scandinavia,  and  in  Russia,  seems  to  have  been 
unfelt  in  Italy  alone,  where  the  five  principal 
States,  Venice,  Milan,  Naples,  Florence,  and  Rome, 
jealously  maintained  their  independence,  and 
abhorred  the  idea  either  of  a  Republican  federation 
or  of  a  monarchical  unity.  The  only  approach  to 
a  national  league  amongst  the  Italians  had  been 
in  1455,  when,  in  consequence  of  the  taking  of 
Constantinople  and  the  dread  that  Mohammed 
might  soon  make  his  appearance  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, Pope  Nicholas  V  had  induced  these  five 
States  to  conclude  a  defensive  alliance  for  twenty- 
five  years  against  any  foreign  foe  that  might  invade 
any  part  of  Italy.  Had  any  of  the  other  Italian 
potentates  possessed  the  foresight  and  sagacity  of 
Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  or  even  had  his  life  been 
prolonged  for  another  ten  or  fifteen  years,  this 
alliance  might  have  been  developed  into  some- 
thing of  a  wider  and  more  permanent  character. 
Why  it  was  not  will  become  apparent  in  the  course 
of  the  following  narrative.  In  the  meantime  it 
will  be  necessary  to  devote  a  few  words  to  each  of 
these  five  States  separately. 

Venice,  satisfied  with  having  defeated  her  mari- 
time rivals,  Pisa  and  Genoa,  mistress  of  the  seas, 
abundantly  rich  from  her  extensive  commerce,  and 
fortunate  in  possessing  a  stronger  internal  govern- 
ment than  any  of  the  other  States,  had  consistently, 
if  also  somewhat  selfishly,  kept  herself  aloof  from 
Italian  politics  until  circumstances  brought  about 
a  change  in  her  policy  in  the  fourteenth  century. 
Then  she  commenced  to  extend  her  dominions  in 

3 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

various  directions.  After  the  fall  of  Constantinople 
many  islands  of  the  Archipelago  voluntarily  gave 
themselves  up  to  her  protection ;  and,  having 
acquired  Padua,  Verona,  Vicenza,  Treviso,  and 
other  towns  on  the  mainland,  she  obviously  aspired 
to  make  herself  the  dominant  power  in  Italy.  This 
policy  aroused  the  most  violent  jealousy  in  all  the 
other  States,  who  would  have  regarded  subordina- 
tion to  the  oligarchical  Council  of  Ten  as  worse 
than  submission  to  a  foreign  foe. 

But  the  greatest  danger  to  the  peace  of  Italy  at 
the  moment  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  Milan. 
When  Duke  Galeazzo  Maria  Sforza  was  assassinated 
in  1476,  his  widow,  Bona  of  Savoy,  assumed  the 
regency  on  behalf  of  her  young  son  Gian- Galeazzo. 
Three  years  later,  however,  Ludovico  Sforza,  eldest 
surviving  brother  of  the  murdered  Duke,  taking 
advantage  of  the  confusion  created  by  the  war  of 
Sixtus  IV  against  Florence,  had  usurped  the 
regency,  and  having  got  into  his  possession  all  the 
arms  and  treasure  of  the  duchy,  acted  both  at  home 
and  abroad  as  its  reigning  Prince,  leaving  his  helpless 
nephew  nothing  but  the  bare  title  of  Duke.  When 
Alexander  VI  ascended  the  Papal  throne  in  1492, 
Gian- Galeazzo  was  twenty- three  years  of  age,  and 
married  to  Isabella,  daughter  of  Alfonso  of  Calabria, 
heir  to  the  throne  of  Naples,  who  naturally  espoused 
the  cause  of  his  son-in-law  and  sought  by  all  the 
means  in  his  power  to  force  Ludovico  into  giving 
up  the  reins  of  government.  It  was  Ludovico's 
struggle  to  maintain  his  usurped  power  in  defiance 
of  the  hostility  of  Naples  that  was  the  immediate 
4 


INTRODUCTION 

cause  of  all  the  troubles  which  soon  fell  so  thickly 
on  the  whole  of  Italy. 

The  Neapolitan  dynasty  was  in  scarcely  better 
case  than  the  Milanese.     That  kingdom,   after  a 
long  and  ruinous  conflict,  had  been  conquered  by 
Alfonso  of  Aragon  in  1442  ;    and  when  he  died  in 
1458,    after   a   salutary   and   undisputed   reign   of 
sixteen  years,  he  had  bequeathed  it  to  his  natural 
son    Ferrante.      The    refusal    of    Calixtus    III    to 
recognise    Ferrante    had    forced    that    able    but 
crafty  and  brutal  prince  to  reconquer  the  kingdom 
for  himself.     Having    accomplished  this,    he  had 
maintained    his   power   for   over   thirty  years   by 
the   utmost   oppression    and    cruelty.     Not    only 
were    his  opponents  treacherously  entrapped  and 
ruthlessly    destroyed,    but    the    fiendish    monarch 
frequently  pleased  himself  by  keeping  some  of  the 
most  troublesome  of  them  in  cages,  like  captured 
wild  beasts,  in  order  that  he  might  gloat  over  the 
sufferings    to    which     he    subjected    them.       He 
exhausted  his   people  by  ruinous  taxation  ;     and 
as  he  condescended  to  trade  on  his  own  account, 
his  avarice  even  went  the  length  of  accumulating 
stocks   of  corn,   oil,   and   other   merchandise,   and 
then   forbidding   his   subjects  to  sell  their  stocks 
until  he  had  obtained  a  scarcity  price  for  his  own. 
Rebellions,  of  course,  were  of  frequent  occurrence  ; 
and  as  late  as  1485  Pope  Innocent  VIII  had  aided 
a  conspiracy  of  the  Neapolitan  barons  which  had 
bid  fair  to  plunge  the  whole  of  Italy  into  war. 
But  although  Ferrante's  courage  and  ability  might 
enable  him  to  crush  all  such  uprisings  within  his 

5 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

own  dominions,  it  was  obvious  to  himself,  as  well 
as  to  others,  that  his  power  could  never  survive 
the  attack  of  any  foreign  foe  ;  and  he  lived  in 
perpetual  dread  of  the  assertion  of  the  claim  of 
France  to  the  Neapolitan  throne. 

Florence,  whose  dominion  extended  over  almost 
the  whole  of  Tuscany,  though  nominally  a  Republic, 
was  practically  under  the  absolute  rule  of  the  House 
of  Medici.  Lorenzo  "  the  magnificent  "  had  died 
in  April  1492,  four  months  before  the  accession  of 
Alexander  VI.  Though  only  the  first  citizen  of  a 
trading  community,  without  command  of  an  army, 
and  not  even  legally  the  ruler  of  his  State,  he  was 
in  fact  an  absolute  despot,  and  his  foreign  policy, 
hingeing  on  friendliness  with  the  Vatican  and 
mediation  between  Naples  and  Milan,  had  justly 
gained  him  the  name  of  the  balancing  needle  of 
Italy.  His  eldest  son,  Piero,  who  succeeded  without 
opposition  to  the  high  position  of  Lorenzo,  was  as 
weak  as  he  was  vicious,  and  having  neither  the 
good  sense  to  follow  his  father's  successful  policy 
nor  the  ability  to  originate  one  of  his  own,  suffered 
himself  to  be  directed  in  matters  of  State  by  the 
Roman  baron,  Virginio  Orsini,  to  whom  he  was 
related  both  through  his  mother  and  his  wife. 

The  position  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  wras  a  rather 
ambiguous  one,  and  will  require  to  be  stated  at 
somewhat  greater  length.  For  several  centuries 
the  Popes  had  been  striving  to  secure  for  the 
Papacy,  in  addition  to  the  spiritual  domination  of 
the  Christian  world,  the  temporal  domination  of 
the  Italian  peninsula.  The  origin  of  the  temporal 
6 


INTRODUCTION 

sovereignty  of  the  Papacy  may  be  traced  back  to 
the  more  or  less  considerable  gifts  of  estates  which 
the  piety  of  various  sovereigns  and  nobles  had 
induced  them  to  bestow  on  the  Bishops  of  Rome. 
As  time  went  on,  the  aggregate  of  these  estates 
increased  to  such  an  extent  that,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  possessions  which  he  owned  in  other  parts 
of  the  world,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  by  the  beginning 
of  the  seventh  century  could  claim  to  be  the 
largest  landowner  in  Italy.  But  although  Gregory 
the  Great,  who  was  elected  to  the  Papacy  by  the 
Senate,  clergy,  and  people  of  Rome  in  590,  was 
forced  by  the  circumstances  of  his  time  to  assume, 
and  that  with  considerable  success,  the  role  of  a 
temporal  governor,  his  successors  were  by  no  means 
always  in  a  position  so  to  act.  They  had  diffi- 
culties with  the  turbulent  people  of  the  Eternal 
City,  difficulties  with  the  insubordinate  barons  of 
the  Patrimony,  and  difficulties  with  the  successive 
occupants  of  the  Imperial  throne.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  ninth  century,  while  the  Popes 
claimed  the  right  to  crown  the  Emperor,  the 
Emperor,  on  his  part,  claimed  the  right  to  confirm 
the  election  of  the  Pope.  About  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  century,  Nicholas  II,  inspired  by  the 
formidable  monk,  Hildebrand,  decreed  that  the 
cardinals  who  were  attached  to  the  various  parishes 
of  Rome  alone  possessed  the  right  to  elect  a  Pope, 
thus  audaciously  withdrawing  all  elective  power 
from  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome,  as  well  as 
repudiating  the  Emperor's  right  of  confirmation. 
In  1145  the  Roman  nobles  and  people  revolted 

7 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

against  the  Papal  authority  and  re-established  the 
Senate.  When  Lucius  II  attempted  to  drive  the 
Senate  from  the  Capitol  he  was  stoned  to  death. 
Eugenius  III,  on  his  election,  not  only  had  to 
fight  his  way  into  Rome,  but  entirely  failed  to 
subjugate  the  people.  But  ten  years  later  Frederick 
Barbarossa  accepted  his  investiture  of  the  Imperial 
crown  from  the  hands  of  the  head  of  the  Church  ; 
and  Arnold  of  Brescia,  founder  of  this  twelfth- 
century  Roman  Commonwealth,  was  burnt  at  the 
stake  and  his  ashes  thrown  into  the  Tiber.  To 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
the  Popes  maintained  their  independence ;  but 
during  the  first  three-quarters  of  the  fourteenth 
(1309-1378),  when  the  Papal  seat  was  at  Avignon, 
they  naturally  lost  much  of  the  power  which  they 
had  previously  acquired.  The  Colonna,  the  Orsini, 
and  other  great  Roman  barons  assumed  the  rule  of 
sovereigns  in  their  immense  territories,  whilst  the 
Este,  the  Montefeltri,  the  Malatesta,  the  Manfredi, 
the  Ordelaffi,  and  other  princely  families  became 
unfettered  "  tyrants  "  at  Ferrara,  Urbino,  Imola, 
Faenza,  Forli,  and  other  towns  of  the  Romagna. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century 
Boniface  IX  recognised  the  authority  of  these 
nobles  by  giving  them  the  title  of  Vicars  of  the 
Church  ;  and  in  return  for  the  security  of  tenure 
which  this  conferred  upon  them  they  were  mostly 
willing  enough  to  pay  him  a  sum  of  money  down 
and  engage  to  pay  a  small  annual  tribute  to  the 
Holy  See. 

The   five   Popes   under   whom   Rodrigo   Borgia 
8 


INTRODUCTION 

served  his  apprenticeship  from  1455  to  1492  were 
men  of  varied  character  and  policy.  His  uncle, 
Calixtus  III  (1455-1458),  of  whom  something  more 
will  have  to  be  said  presently,  was  devoted  to 
but  two  objects,  the  prosecution  of  a  crusade 
against  the  Turks,  and  the  aggrandisement  of  his 
relatives.  He  made  no  effort  to  extend  the 
dominions  of  the  Holy  See,  although  he  risked 
plunging  the  whole  of  Italy  into  war  by  refusing 
to  recognise  Ferrante  of  Naples,  from  the  mere 
desire  to  obtain  a  kingly  crown  for  the  head  of 
his  favourite  nephew,  Don  Pedro  Borgia. 

Enea  Silvio  Piccolomini,  who  as  Pius  II  reigned 
from  1458  to  1464,  reversed  the  policy  of  Calixtus 
in  regard  to  Naples,  and  even  assisted  Ferrante 
with  troops  when  his  throne  was  threatened  by 
pretenders.  He  was  a  fortunate  opportunist  who, 
though  personally  averse  to  any  warlike  policy,  yet 
conquered  all  his  enemies,  and  considerably  en- 
larged the  States  of  the  Church.  He  allied  himself 
with  the  Colonna,  and  redeemed  the  towns  of 
Spoleto,  Narni,  Soriano,  Viterbo,  Civita  Castellana, 
and  Civita  Vecchia  from  the  castellans  of  Calixtus's 
Borgia.  His  absence  from  Rome  for  nearly  two 
years,  from  January  1459  to  October  1460,  was  the 
cause  or  occasion  of  a  violent  disturbance.  A 
band  of  youthful  rebels,  under  their  leader  Tiberzio, 
with  the  professed  object  of  delivering  Rome 
from  the  rule  of  the  priests,  terrorised  the  city 
and  compelled  the  Governor  to  take  refuge  in 
the  Vatican.  They  made  alliance  with  certain 
disaffected  barons  of  the  Campagna,  and  after 

9 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Malatesta,  the  Savelli,  the  Count  of  Anguillara, 
and  others  of  their  allies  had  seized  on  a  number 
of  the  smaller  towns,  they  all  conspired  together 
to  invite  the  redoubtable  condottiere,  Piccinnino, 
to  march  to  their  assistance  for  the  conquest  of 
Rome.  But  after  Pius's  return  Tiberzio  was 
captured  and  hanged  ;  when,  with  the  assistance 
of  Ferrante  of  Naples  and  Francesco  Sforza  of 
Milan,  the  Pope  was  able  to  drive  Piccinnino  out 
of  his  territories  and  reduce  the  revolting  barons 
to  subjection.  The  nepotism  of  Pius  II  was  as 
pronounced,  though  not  so  pregnant  with 
momentous  results  to  the  Church,  as  that  of  his 
predecessor.  He  elevated  several  of  his  relations 
to  the  purple  ;  one  nephew  became  Master  of  his 
household,  another  Bishop  of  Pavia  ;  and  of  four 
brothers  Piccolomini,  Giacomo  was  made  Lord  of 
Monte  Marciano,  Andrea,  Lord  of  Castiglione  della 
Pescaja,  Francesco  (destined  afterwards  to  reach 
the  Papal  throne)  was  raised  to  the  Cardinalate, 
and  Antonio,  married  to  a  natural  daughter  of 
King  Ferrante  and  created  a  Duke,  became  a 
vassal  of  the  crown  of  Naples. 

Pietro  Barbo,  who  reigned  as  Paul  II  from  1464 
to  1471,  was  a  rather  theatrically-minded  Pope, 
who  gave  the  sacred  festivities  of  the  Church  a 
splendid  but  altogether  secular  and  pagan  turn, 
amusing  the  Roman  populace  with  "  bread  and 
circuses."  His  personal  vanity  induced  him  to 
collect  precious  stones  for  the  adornment  of  his 
vestments  and  tiaras.  On  the  death  of  his  rival, 
Cardinal  Scarampo,  who  was  also  a  collector  of 
10 


INTRODUCTION 

precious  stones  and  other  gewgaws,  Paul  set  aside 
the  will  in  which  the  Cardinal  had  left  all  these  to 
his  nephews,  took  forcible  possession  of  the  gold 
and  plate  and  jewellery  which  the  legatees  were 
attempting  to  send  off  to  Florence,  and  had  several 
cartloads  of  them  shot  into  the  treasury  of  the 
Vatican.  When  he  died,  there  were  found  amongst 
his  personal  possessions  fifty-four  silver  cups  filled 
with  pearls,  together  with  precious  stones  and 
gold  and  other  jewellery  to  the  total  value  of  a 
million  and  a  half  of  ducats.  At  his  election 
Paul  II  had  been  forced  to  sign  a  capitulation  to 
assemble  the  Sacred  College  twice  a  year,  a  notable 
attempt  to  reduce  the  Papacy  from  a  sovereignty 
to  an  oligarchy  which,  as  might  have  been  expected, 
proved  not  worth  the  paper  it  was  written  on. 
He  greatly  reformed  the  administration  of  justice 
in  Rome ;  and  he  showed  little  inclination  to 
interfere  in  matters  outside  his  own  domain.  But 
his  war  with  certain  vassals  of  the  Holy  See,  when 
the  house  of  Anguillara  was  humbled  and  one 
feudal  lord  after  another  crushed,  aroused  the 
dismay  of  Florence,  Milan,  and  Naples  at  the 
growing  power  of  the  Papacy,  so  that  they  banded 
together  and  forced  the  Pope  to  stop  just  as  he 
was  about  to  oust  Roberto  Malatesta  from  Rimini. 
Francesco  Rovere,  the  son  of  a  poor  fisherman, 
who  occupied  the  Chair  of  St.  Peter  from  1471  to 
1484  in  the  name  of  Sixtus  IV,  was  a  more  violent 
and  ambitious  spirit.  At  first  Sixtus  seemed 
disposed  to  carry  on  the  policy  of  his  immediate 
predecessors  as  regards  war  against  the  Turk ; 

11 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

but  his  efforts  in  this  direction  proving  something 
of  a  failure,  he  speedily  abandoned  them  and 
concentrated  his  attention  on  the  internal  politics 
of  Italy.  His  nepotism  was  excessive  and  scan- 
dalous. Within  six  months  of  his  election  he 
raised  two  of  his  "  nephews  "  to  the  purple,  Pietro 
Riario,  generally  understood  to  be  not  his  nephew 
but  his  son,  and  Giuliano  della  Rovere,  son  of 
his  brother  Rafael.  Another  nephew,  Lionardo 
Rovere,  was  made  Prefect  of  Rome,  and  after- 
wards married  to  an  Aragonese  princess,  whose 
dowry  made  him  Duke  of  Sora  ;  the  price  paid  by 
the  Pope  for  this  being  the  remission  of  Ferrante's 
tribute  during  his  lifetime,  a  transaction,  as  will 
be  seen,  which  caused  much  trouble  in  the  future. 
Pietro  Riario  was  so  loaded  with  rich  benefices 
that  his  income  is  said  to  have  amounted  to  a 
sum  equal  to  £150,000  of  our  present  money. 
The  sudden  rise  from  the  station  of  a  poor  monk 
to  such  a  pinnacle  of  wealth  and  greatness  seems 
to  have  turned  Pietro's  head,  and  he  plunged  into 
the  wildest  extravagance  and  sensuality.  When 
Leonora,  daughter  of  the  King  of  Naples,  came  to 
Rome  in  1473  to  meet  her  husband,  Duke  Ercole 
of  Ferrara,  Cardinal  Pietro  Riario  entertained  her 
in  a  style  that  beggars  description.  The  piazza 
adjoining  his  palace  was  roofed  with  canvas,  and 
transformed  into  a  pavilion.  The  foremost  artists 
of  Rome  were  employed  to  decorate  the  place, 
which  was  hung  with  silk  and  velvet  and  the 
magnificent  tapestries  of  Nicholas  V  which  depicted 
the  creation  of  the  world.  The  rooms  glittered 
12 


INTRODUCTION 

with  gold  and  purple,  luxurious  couches  and 
soft-cushioned  chairs  stood  on  silver  feet ;  and 
the  Cardinal's  attention  to  splendid  detail  was 
such  that  as  one  of  its  reporters  slyly  remarks, 
the  ladies  of  the  Court  must  have  smiled  when, 
on  retiring  to  their  sleeping  apartments,  they  found 
even  the  humblest  utensils  to  be  of  silver  gilt. 
On  the  day  after  the  Princess's  arrival,  which  was 
Whitsunday,  the  Florentine  actors  performed  a 
play  or  masque  in  the  Piazza  Pavilion  representing 
Susannah  and  the  Elders.  On  the  Monday, 
Cardinal  Pietro  gave  a  great  banquet,  the  bill- of  - 
fare  of  which  occupies  two  pages  of  Corio's  "  Storia 
di  Milano."  And  so  it  went  on  with  unparalleled 
extravagance  day  after  day.  The  Cardinal's  palace 
was  like  the  Court  of  a  King,  thronged  with  time- 
serving artists,  poets,  and  other  hangers-on.  Pietro 
got  himself  appointed  Legate  for  the  whole  of 
Italy ;  and  when  he  travelled  he  was  received 
everywhere  with  the  honours  due  to  royalty.  But 
his  luxury  and  dissipation  and  debauchery  were 
so  extravagant  that  in  two  years  he  wore  himself 
out ;  and  he  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight  in 
1474,  when  it  was  found  that,  although  he  had 
received  during  the  short  period  of  his  splendour 
something  like  half  a  million  sterling  he  was 
overwhelmed  with  debt.  His  brother,  Girolamo, 
a  customs-house  officer,  then  succeeded  to  the 
Pope's  favours,  who  married  him  to  Caterina 
Sforza,  a  natural  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Milan, 
and  invested  him  with  the  Lordship  of  Imola. 
Another  nephew,  Giovanni,  was  married  to  Caterina 

13 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Montefeltro,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Urbino,  and, 
in  1475,  on  the  death  of  his  brother  Lionardo,  was 
made  Prefect  of  Rome.  In  addition  to  the  fore- 
going, three  other  nephews,  Rafael  Riario,  and 
Cristoforo  and  Gieronimo  Rovere,  were  elevated  to 
the  purple. 

Such  was  the  fierceness  of  Sixtus's  lust  for  the 
aggrandisement  of  his  family  that  when  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici  opposed  his  efforts  to  secure  the 
supremacy  of  Count  Girolamo  in  the  Romagna, 
the  Pope  even  condescended  to  ally  himself  with 
the  Pazzi  in  their  vile  conspiracy  to  assassinate 
Lorenzo  and  his  brother  Giuliano  before  the  high 
altar  in  the  Cathedral  at  Florence.  Giuliano  de' 
Medici  was  killed,  but  Lorenzo  defended  himself 
with  his  sword  and  escaped  with  only  a  slight 
wound.  The  Florentines,  in  their  fury  at  this 
dastardly  act,  retaliated  by  hanging  not  only  the 
murderers,  but  also  the  Archbishop  of  Pisa,  who 
was  believed  to  be  an  accomplice.  Then  the 
infuriated  Sixtus  formed  a  league  with  Naples  and 
Siena  to  drive  the  Medici  from  Florence.  The 
city  was  excommunicated,  all  property  in  Rome 
belonging  to  its  citizens  was  confiscated,  and  the 
Pope,  with  his  allies,  marched  an  army  into 
Tuscany.  It  was  at  this  moment  that  Ludovico 
Sforza  took  advantage  of  the  confusion  to  seize 
the  regency  of  Milan,  which  Naples  and  the  Pope 
agreed  to  on  condition  that  he  took  their  side 
against  Florence.  The  situation  of  the  Florentines 
was  now  desperate,  and  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  showed 
the  greatness  of  his  mind  by  carrying  out  the  bold 
14 


INTRODUCTION 

resolve  of  going  to  Naples,  placing  himself  entirely 
in  the  power  of  his  avowed  enemy,  and  endeavouring 
by  mere  force  of  reason  to  persuade  Ferrante  to 
make  peace  with  him.  He  succeeded,  and  was 
received  back  in  Florence  with  jubilation ;  but 
the  obstinate  and  vindictive  Sixtus  would  not 
come  to  terms  until  he  was  forced  into  a  peace 
by  the  Turkish  conquest  of  Otranto. 

While  danger  from  the  Turk  was  imminent 
Sixtus  maintained  an  alliance  with  Venice  for 
defence  against  the  common  enemy  ;  but  when 
the  death  of  Mohammed  II  set  his  two  sons, 
Bajazet  and  Djem,  fighting  for  the  vacant  throne 
of  Constantinople,  and  the  Turkish  army  was  in 
consequence  forced  to  evacuate  Otranto,  the  Pope 
once  more  turned  to  his  chief  interest  of  advancing 
the  fortunes  of  his  "  nephews."  Girolamo  Riario, 
already  Lord  of  Imola  by  purchase,  had  become 
possessed  of  Forli  also  by  the  simple  process  of 
seizing  the  place  after  murdering  one  of  the 
claimants  to  the  Lordship  when  there  occurred  a 
dispute  as  to  the  succession  among  the  illegitimate 
children  of  Pino  Ordelaffi.  But  not  content  with 
these  lordships,  the  Pope  also  wished  to  endow  his 
nephew  with  Faenza,  Ravenna,  Rimini,  and  other 
towns.  In  1481  Venice  sought  a  pretext  for  making 
war  on  Duke  Ercole  d'Este,  and  Sixtus  lent  his  aid 
to  the  project,  evidently  thinking  that  after  he  had 
allowed  Venice  to  go  as  far  as  suited  his  purpose, 
he  might  be  able  to  step  in,  and  add  Ferrara  also 
to  the  dominions  of  Count  Girolamo.  But  all 
Italy  was  now  thoroughly  alarmed  at  the  ambitious 

15 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

designs  of  the  scheming  Pope,  as  well  as  at  the 
increasing  aggressiveness  of  Venice,  so  that  not 
only  did  Ferrante  of  Naples  send  troops  to  the 
assistance  of  his  son-in-law,  Ercole,  but  Milan  and 
Florence,  together  with  Gonzaga  of  Mantua  and 
Bentivoglio  of  Bologna,  ranged  themselves  on  the 
side  of  Ferrara.  The  Pope  could  not  even  secure 
the  services  of  his  old  ally  and  captain,  Federigo 
of  Urbino,  and  was  obliged  to  entrust  the  command 
of  his  forces  to  Roberto  Malatesta  instead.  More- 
over, the  war  with  Ferrara  brought  about  another 
feud  between  the  rival  factions  of  Rome,  the 
Colonna  and  the  Savelli  siding  with  Naples,  in 
whose  employ  some  of  them  were  serving,  whilst 
their  hereditary  antagonists,  the  Orsini,  ranged 
themselves  under  the  banners  of  the  Pope.  On 
August  21,  1482,  the  Papal  forces  under  Malatesta 
defeated  Alfonso  of  Calabria  in  the  district  known 
as  Campo  Morto,  but  such  was  the  pestilential  air 
of  the  place  that  the  general  died  of  malaria  a 
fortnight  after  his  triumphal  return  to  Rome. 
Sixtus,  of  course,  was  jubilant ;  but  he  showed  his 
gratitude  to  the  man  who  had  won  the  battle  for  him 
in  characteristic  fashion.  Roberto  Malatesta's  son 
and  heir,  Pandolpho,  was  a  mere  child,  and  the 
sordid  Pope  instantly  despatched  his  nephew  to 
Rimini  in  hopes  that  he  might  be  able  to  seize  on 
the  boy's  inheritance.  Florence,  however,  came 
forward  and  protected  Roberto's  widow  from  this 
act  of  Papal  greed  and  treachery.  That  un- 
fortunate lady  lost  both  husband  and  father  at 
the  same  moment ;  for  on  the  very  day  that 
16 


INTRODUCTION 

Roberto  Malatesta  died  in  Rome,  his  father-in-law, 
Duke  Federigo  of  Urbino,  died  at  Ferrara,  also  of 
fever,  which  he  had  contracted  whilst  fighting  on  the 
opposite  side.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Guido- 
baldo,  the  last  of  the  Montef  eltri,  whom  we  shall  hear 
of  again  as  suffering  at  the  hands  of  Cesare  Borgia. 
Three  months  later,  however,  Sixtus  was  brought 
to  heel  by  the  opposition  of  the  Emperor  and 
the  threat  of  a  Council;  whereupon  he  promptly 
changed  sides,  with  consummate  effrontery  ordered 
Venice  to  desist  from  making  war  against 
Ferrara ;  and,  five  months  later,  was  found  in 
league  with  Naples,  Milan,  and  Florence  against 
the  ally  whom  he  had  so  unscrupulously  abandoned. 
In  fact  on  May  25,  1483,  he  even  went  the  length 
of  excommunicating  Venice  for  continuing  to 
prosecute  that  war  against  Ferrara  which  he  him- 
self had  been  mainly  instrumental  in  instigating. 
Then  Sixtus,  with  the  aid  of  the  Orsini,  made  a 
determined  onslaught  on  the  Colonna,  plundering 
their  palaces  and  razing  their  fortresses  to  the 
ground  with  the  object  of  obtaining  their  posses- 
sions for  his  nephew.  Count  Girolamo  hoped  to 
crush  and  perhaps  even  to  exterminate  the  Colonna  ; 
but  they  made  a  desperate  resistance,  and  the 
Pope,  who  was  ill  with  fever,  became  greatly 
depressed  by  his  nephew's  want  of  success.  Then 
came  a  final  blow  to  his  hopes  ;  for  on  August  11, 
1484,  he  learned  that,  without  consulting  him, 
Venice  had  made  peace  with  the  other  Italian 
powers.  The  unwelcome  news  threw  him  into  such 
transports  of  rage  that  he  died  the  following  day. 

B  17 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Although  none  of  his  ambitious  plans  were 
successful,  Sixtus  IV,  as  Machiavelli  remarks,  was 
the  first  Pope  to  show  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Papacy ;  and  it  may  be  added  that  his  Vice- 
chancellor,  Rodrigo  Borgia,  was  the  man  to  mark, 
learn,  and  inwardly  digest.  In  spite  of  his  tortuous 
diplomacy  Sixtus  got  nothing  either  from  Venice 
or  from  Naples  ;  he  failed  in  his  designs  against 
Ferrara  ;  he  did  not  even  succeed  in  crushing  the 
power  of  the  Colonna  within  his  own  territory. 
But  he  pointed  out  the  way  to  his  successors. 
It  has  been  said  that  had  the  condition  of  things 
in  his  time  favoured  a  French  invasion,  or  had 
his  nephews  been  of  the  calibre  of  the  Borgia, 
his  reign  would  probably  have  been  as  disastrous 
in  the  history  of  Italy  and  of  Rome  as  that  of  the 
equally  unscrupulous  but  far  subtler  man  who 
ascended  the  Papal  throne  eight  years  later.  If 
this  were  a  biography  of  Sixtus,  much  would  have 
to  be  said  on  the  other  side  ;  but  we  may  agree 
with  Mandell  Creighton,  no  harsh  critic,  when  he 
says  that  Sixtus  lowered  the  moral  standard  of 
the  Papacy,  and  did  much  to  prepare  the  way  for 
still  unworthier  successors. 

Immediately  the  death  of  Sixtus  IV  was 
announced,  the  Colonna,  whom  he  had  treated  so 
vilely,  flew  to  arms  ;  and  the  Roman  populace, 
who  likewise  had  suffered  severely  at  the  hands 
of  his  rapacious  nephew,  sacked  the  palace  of  Count 
Girolamo,  and  plundered  the  banks  and  the  corn 
granaries.  Caterina,  Count  Girolamo's  amazon 
wife,  took  possession  of  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo 
18 


INTRODUCTION 

and  held  it  on  her  husband's  behalf,  whilst  he, 
abandoning  his  camp  at  Palliano  to  the  enemy, 
hurried  by  forced  marches  towards  Rome.  The 
cardinals  were  urged  to  hasten  the  election  of  a 
new  pope  as  the  only  means  of  averting  civil  war. 
They  managed  to  arrange  a  truce  ;  getting  Giro- 
lamo  to  surrender  St.  Angelo  in  exchange  for 
40,000  ducats,  and  persuading  the  Colonna  and 
the  Orsini  to  retire  to  their  own  territories.  Then 
commenced  a  series  of  intrigues  and  bargainings 
for  votes.  Cardinal  Rodrigo  Borgia  had  thought 
himself  so  secure  of  election  that  he  had  barricaded 
his  palace  to  prevent  the  customary  pillage  ;  but 
the  Venetian  Cardinal  Barbo  proved  to  be  stronger 
in  votes,  whilst  Ascanio  Sforza  and  Giovanni  of 
Aragon,  though  neither  able  to  secure  their  own 
election  nor  that  of  any  other  candidate  of  their 
choice,  were  yet  quite  strong  enough  to  exclude 
any  one  whom  they  opposed.  In  this  conjuncture, 
Giuliano  della  Rovere,  whose  aim  it  was  to  secure 
the  elevation  of  a  Pontiff  under  whom  he  might 
direct  the  policy  of  the  Holy  See,  induced  Borgia 
and  others  to  sink  their  claims  and  work  for  the 
election  of  the  Genoese  cardinal,  Giovanni  Battista 
Cibo.  Palaces,  castles,  abbeys,  legations,  and  other 
lucrative  offices  were  accordingly  promised  to  those 
who  would  join  the  party  led  by  Rovere  ;  and 
Burchard  tells  us  that  Cardinal  Cibo  gained  enough 
votes  to  render  all  opposition  useless  by  signing 
the  petitions  for  favours  of  this  kind  which 
were  presented  to  him  during  one  night  in  his 
cell. 

19 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Innocent  VIII,  who  thus  came  to  the  Papal 
throne  in  1484  and  continued  to  reign  until  1492, 
having  been  made  pope  by  Cardinal  Giuliano  della 
Rovere,  was  completely  ruled  by  that  restless  and 
intriguing  spirit,  at  least  during  the  first  few  years 
of  his  Pontificate.  The  Cardinal  soon  embroiled 
the  Papacy  in  a  war  with  Naples  by  inducing 
Innocent  to  demand  the  feudal  tribute  which 
Sixtus  IV  (for  a  consideration,  as  we  have  seen) 
had  relinquished.  Florence  and  Milan  sided  with 
Naples;  Venice,  and  Genoa  with  the  Pope.  As, 
however,  the  Colonna  and  the  Savelli  were  amongst 
the  Papal  forces,  Ferrante  was  easily  able  to  draw 
their  hereditary  enemies  into  alliance  with  him  ; 
and  Virginio  Orsini  quickly  marched  on  Rome, 
seized  the  Porta  Nomentana,  and  placed  the 
Eternal  City  in  a  state  of  siege.  But  for  the  energy 
and  alertness  of  Cardinal  Giuliano,  who,  clad  in 
armour,  personally  conducted  the  defence  of  the 
walls,  Orsini  would  have  captured  the  city,  when 
perhaps  he  might  even  have  gone  the  length  of  his 
insolent  threat  to  carry  the  warlike  Cardinal's  head 
on  a  lance  through  the  streets  and  throw  the  Pope 
himself  into  the  Tiber.  After  a  year's  fighting, 
with  much  devastation,  but  little  practical  success 
on  either  side,  Innocent  threatened  to  call  in  the 
aid  of  Charles  VIII  of  France.  This  brought  about 
a  compromise  ;  and  by  the  mediation  of  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici  and  Ferdinand  of  Spain  a  peace  was 
patched  up  in  1486.  Although  this  peace  was  in 
no  way  a  creditable  one  to  the  Pope,  for  he  not 
only  gained  by  it  no  advantage  to  the  Holy  See, 
20 


INTRODUCTION 

but  basely  left  his  allies,  the  revolting  Neapolitan 
barons,  to  the  mercy  of  Ferrante,  who  exterminated 
them  after  his  own  ferocious  fashion,  yet  it  was 
very  grateful  to  the  people  of  Rome.  The  city 
was  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  Murders  and  robberies 
were  of  daily  occurrence,  and  so  corrupt  was  the 
administration  of  justice  that  crimes  of  the  most 
diabolical  character  were  compounded  for  a  fine. 
Franceschetto  Cibo,  the  Pope's  son,  made  an 
arrangement  with  the  Vice- Chancellor  Borgia 
whereby  these  fines  were  divided  between  the  two 
of  them  in  certain  specified  proportions.  When 
the  Vice- Chancellor  was  reproached  one  day  by 
some  outspoken  person  concerning  the  failure  of 
the  law  to  deal  properly  with  criminals  who 
deserved  execution,  he  is  reported  to  have  replied 
in  his  genially  cynical  manner :  "  God  desireth  not 
the  death  of  a  sinner,  but  rather  that  he  should 
pay  and  live." 

The  cardinals,  whose  power  and  splendour  now 
eclipsed  that  of  the  old  Roman  nobility,  promoted 
rather  than  discouraged  this  condition  of  anarchy. 
Their  palaces,  with  great  pillared  courtyards  and 
flanking  towers,  were  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
fortresses ;  they  gave  sanctuary  to  whom  they 
pleased  ;  and  each  one  considered  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  his  house  as  under  his  own 
special  jurisdiction  alone.  Hence  there  were  fre- 
quent frays  between  the  retainers  of  these  proud 
princes  of  the  Church.  Most  of  them  kept  several 
hundred  servants  capable  of  bearing  arms ;  in 
the  galleries  overlooking  their  courtyards  were 

21 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

often  to  be  found  hired  soldiers  armed  with  muskets, 
and  occasionally  even  a  piece  or  two  of  artillery. 
It  is  reported  that  one  day  when  some  young 
Romans  had  wounded  a  follower  of  Cardinal 
Ascanio  Sforza,  the  retainers  of  that  prelate  sallied 
out,  and  by  way  of  retaliation  wounded  more  than 
twenty  people  in  the  streets.  On  another  occasion, 
when  the  captain  of  the  Cardinal's  Court  was 
arresting  a  criminal  near  the  palace  of  Cardinal 
La  Balue,  the  latter  from  one  of  his  windows 
forbade  such  a  proceeding  within  the  precincts  of 
his  palace  ;  and  when  that  arrest  was  nevertheless 
proceeded  with,  the  French  cardinal's  retainers 
were  ordered  to  attack  the  Court  of  Justice,  which 
they  promptly  sacked,  after  releasing  all  the 
prisoners.  Most  of  the  cardinals  had  "  nephews," 
after  the  example  of  the  Supreme  Pontiff,  and 
were  surrounded  by  a  court  of  favourites,  parasites, 
and  hired  bravoes.  They  rode  in  the  streets  in 
secular  attire,  sometimes  with  swords  at  their 
sides  ;  they  vied  with  one  another  in  displaying 
their  wealth  and  magnificence ;  and  altogether 
they  had  attained  to  such  a  degree  of  wealth 
and  power  that  they  threatened  to  subjugate  the 
Papacy  itself.  This  was  another  matter  that  Vice- 
Chancellor  Borgia  marked  and  inwardly  digested, 
with  the  result  that,  when  his  time  came,  the 
College  of  Cardinals  was  reduced  to  an  assembly  of 
tame  and  subservient  domestic  chaplains. 

In  1487  Cardinal  Giuliano  della  Rovere  fell  out 
of  favour  with  Innocent  VIII,  and  the  French 
cardinal,  La  Balue,  succeeded  him  in  the  direction 
22 


INTRODUCTION 

of  the  Papal  policy.  The  first  indication  of  a 
change  was  a  league  with  Venice.  This  was  any- 
thing but  pleasing  to  Florence  and  Milan,  but 
before  long  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  managed  to  draw 
Innocent  away  from  it  by  marrying  his  daughter 
Maddelena  to  the  Pope's  son,  Franceschetto.  This, 
in  its  turn,  brought  about  another  change,  for 
Maddelena's  mother  was  a  sister  of  Virginio  Orsini, 
and  their  marriage  relationship  caused  this  family 
once  more  to  regain  its  influence  in  the  Vatican. 
Innocent  at  once  made  peace  with  Virginio,  who 
came  to  Rome  ;  whereupon  Cardinal  Giuliano  della 
Rovere  found  it  convenient  to  retire  for  a  time  to 
Bologna.  On  April  14,  1488,  Count  Girolamo 
Riario,  the  brutal  nephew,  for  whose  sake  Sixtus 
IV  had  schemed  and  fought  so  persistently,  was 
assassinated  by  some  of  his  own  retainers  at  Forli, 
who  attacked  him  unawares  as  he  was  resting  after 
supper,  and  flung  his  naked  corpse  out  of  the 
window.  The  Forlivese  thereupon  promptly 
sacked  the  palace,  and  would  have  handed  over 
the  town  to  the  Pope,  had  not  Girolamo's  virago 
of  a  wife  outwitted  them,  and  set  up  her  young 
son,  Ottaviano,  as  Lord  of  Forli,  with  herself  as 
Regent.  It  was  generally  thought  that  Innocent 
VIII  had  countenanced  this  plot  in  order  to  acquire 
Forli  for  his  son,  but  his  complicity  was  never 
proved,  although  it  was  extremely  suspicious  that 
envoys  from  the  conspirators  were  hospitably 
received  at  Rome  and  that  the  Papal  Governor  of 
Cesena  was  sent  with  troops  to  Forli  apparently 
for  their  assistance. 

23 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

In  1489  Rome  witnessed  the  strange  spectacle 
of  a  son  of  the  infidel  conqueror  of  Byzantium 
coming  to  take  up  his  abode  in  the  Vatican  as  a 
paying  guest  of  the  head  of  the  Christian  Church. 
When  Mohammed  II  died  in  1481,  his  two  sons, 
Bajazet  and  Djem,  disputed  the  succession  ;  but 
Djem,  being  hopelessly  defeated  at  Broussa,  had 
fled  to  Egypt  and  subsequently,  in  July  1482, 
sought  refuge  with  the  Knights  of  St.  John  at 
Rhodes.  Though  treated  with  superficial  courtesy, 
Djem  was  really  detained  as  a  prisoner  and  held 
as  a  hostage  for  the  peaceful  behaviour  of  his 
dreaded  brother,  Bajazet,  with  whom  the  Knights 
of  St.  John  opened  up  negotiations.  Bajazet 
agreed  to  pay  them  40,000  ducats  annually  for 
his  brother's  maintenance,  and  to  preserve  peace 
with  them  so  long  as  Djem  was  kept  in  safe 
custody.  But  it  soon  became  advisable  to 
transfer  Djem  to  more  secure  quarters.  There 
were  many  candidates  for  the  profitable  privi- 
lege of  entertaining  him.  The  Sultan  of  Egypt 
would  have  been  ready  to  make  war  on  Constan- 
tinople on  his  behalf;  he  would  have  been  a 
valuable  asset  to  Mathias  of  Hungary,  who  was 
then  endeavouring  to  drive  the  Turks  from  his 
borders  ;  he  would  have  been  equally  welcome  to 
Ferdinand  of  Spain,  who  was  occupied  in  driving 
the  Moors  out  of  Granada  ;  Ferrante  of  Naples 
contended  that  as  he  was  geographically  the 
natural  guardian  of  the  Mediterranean,  Djem 
should  be  placed  in  his  keeping  ;  Innocent  VIII 
claimed  the  custody  of  him  on  the  ground  that, 
24 


INTRODUCTION 

as  Pope,  he  was  the  real  head  and  leader  of  every 
Crusade.  The  Grand  Master  of  the  Knights  of 
St.  John  finally  decided  to  send  him  to  France, 
where  he  was  kept  a  close  prisoner  for  seven  years 
in  one  of  the  strongholds  of  the  Order.  About  the 
end  of  that  period,  however,  the  French  monarch 
was  badly  in  want  of  the  Pope's  assistance,  for 
only  by  means  of  his  concurrence  would  it  be 
possible  for  the  young  King  Charles  VIII  to  marry 
Anne  of  Brittany  and  secure  her  duchy.  Amongst 
other  conditions  which  Innocent  imposed  in  return 
for  the  granting  of  this  favour  was  the  transference 
of  Prince  Djem  to  the  custody  of  the  Vatican. 
But  as  this  transference  could  not  be  accomplished 
without  the  consent  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John, 
Innocent  was  also  obliged  to  bribe  the  Grand 
Master  of  that  Order,  Pierre  d'Aubusson,  by  the 
offer  of  a  cardinal's  hat. 

On  March  13  all  Rome  was  in  a  flutter  to  witness 
the  ceremonial  entry  of  the  Pope's  strange  guest. 
Prince  Djem  was  received  at  the  city  gate  by  the 
households  of  the  cardinals,  by  the  magistrates  of 
the  city,  by  Roman  nobles  and  foreign  ambassadors, 
with  all  the  honour  and  ceremony  due  to  a  sovereign. 
An  envoy  of  Bajazet,  who  happened  to  be  in  Rome 
at  the  time,  prostrated  himself  on  the  ground,  and, 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  kissed  first  the  hoof  of  the  horse 
and  then  D Jem's  foot  and  knee.  But  the  Turkish 
prince  sat  motionless  and  silent  on  the  white  palfrey 
which  had  been  presented  to  him  by  the  Pope,  and 
when  the  formal  greetings  were  over  rode  sullenly 
through  the  crowded  streets  of  Rome,  between  the 

25 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Prior  of  Alverina  and  Franceshetto  Cibo,  keeping 
his  face  closely  covered  by  a  veil.  Such  was  the 
religious  prejudice  of  Charles  VIII  that  during 
D jem's  residence  in  France  he  had  refused  even 
to  see  the  "  infidel,"  but  no  such  fanaticism  pre- 
vailed at  the  Court  of  the  Vatican.  On  the  day 
after  his  entry  into  Rome  Innocent  formally 
received  him  in  full  consistory.  The  Turkish 
prince  had  been  carefully  instructed  by  Burchard, 
the  Master  of  the  Ceremonies,  to  throw  himself 
down  before  the  Pope  and  observe  all  the  cere- 
monial proper  to  such  an  occasion.  But  this 
squat  -  figured,  hawk  -  nosed,  one  -  eyed  little 
"  infidel "  haughtily  declined  to  behave  in  a 
manner  which  he  thought  unbecoming  in  a  follower 
of  the  Prophet  and  a  son  of  the  conqueror  of 
Constantinople.  He  did  not  kneel,  or  attempt  to 
kiss  the  Papal  foot,  but,  after  an  almost  imper- 
ceptible bow,  stepped  calmly  up  to  the  Pope, 
turban  on  head,  and  bestowed  a  perfunctory  kiss 
on  the  Pontiff's  right  arm.  Innocent  made  him 
assurances  of  friendship,  promised  that  his  guest 
should  live  quite  unmolested  in  Rome,  and  sent 
many  rich  presents  of  clothes,  carpets,  hangings, 
and  ornaments  to  the  chambers  which  had  been 
allotted  him  in  the  Vatican.  But  Djem  main- 
tained his  impenetrable  reserve ;  and  during 
the  remainder  of  Innocent's  reign  passed  the 
greater  part  of  his  time  in  his  apartments,  some- 
times relieving  his  tedium  with  literature  and 
music,  but  indulging  freely  in  alcohol,  and  mostly 
dozing  away  the  days  with  ultra  Oriental  apathy. 
26 


INTRODUCTION 

Bajazet  was  quite  willing  to  go  on  paying  a 
heavy  annual  tribute  to  have  Djem  kept  safely 
where  he  could  do  no  mischief,  but  he  would  have 
been  even  more  willing  to  pay  a  much  larger  sum 
down  to  have  the  greater  security  of  his  brother's 
death.  Knowing,  or  surmising  this,  a  Roman 
baron  named  Cristoforo  di  Castrano,  who  had 
been  dispossessed  of  his  lands  by  Innocent  VIII, 
went  to  Constantinople  and  offered  his  services 
for  the  purpose.  His  scheme,  which  presumably 
was  considered  and  approved  by  Bajazet,  would 
not  only  have  killed  Prince  Djem,  but  the  Pope 
and  most  of  his  household  also,  for  it  consisted  in 
poisoning  the  well  from  which  the  drinking-water 
of  the  Vatican  was  drawn.  Fortunately  it  was 
discovered  in  time  ;  and  we  can  hardly  wonder 
that  the  miscreant  suffered  for  his  intended  crime 
by  torture  and  a  peculiarly  cruel  death.  Thence- 
forth, of  course,  the  daily  fear  of  poison  added  to 
the  already  sufficiently  pitiable  condition  of  Djem's 
existence.  Six  months  later,  when  Bajazet  sent  an 
embassy  to  the  Pope  with  120,000  ducats  for  three 
years  of  his  brother's  maintenance,  the  ambassador 
insisted  on  seeing  the  Prince,  probably  only  to 
make  sure  that  he  still  lived,  before  paying  over 
the  money.  The  Prince  insisted  on  receiving  his 
brother's  envoy  in  state,  seated  on  an  elevated 
throne,  with  prelates  of  the  Roman  Church  on 
either  side  of  him,  and  protected  by  a  company  of 
the  Palace  guards.  For  further  assurance,  the 
ambassador,  who  had  previously  been  carefully 
rubbed  down  with  a  towel  and  made  to  kiss  it,  was 

27 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

then  obliged  to  prostrate  himself  thrice  before  the 
Prince's  throne,  and  to  lick  all  over,  inside  and 
out,  a  letter  he  had  brought,  before  Djem  would 
touch  it  with  his  fingers. 

All  this  time  the  weak  and  incompetent 
Innocent  VIII  had  been  indulging  in  most  un- 
apostolical  luxury  and  festivity.  He  was  not  the 
only  pope  who  had  been  blessed  with  a  family,  but 
he  was  the  first  who  openly  acknowledged  them 
as  his  own  children.  He  is  said  to  have  had  a 
numerous  family,  but  Burchard  mentions  two 
only,  a  son,  Franceschetto,  and  a  daughter,  Theo- 
dorina,  the  marriage  festivals  of  both  of  whom  in 
1488  were  celebrated  with  great  splendour  in  the 
Vatican  to  the  scandal  of  all  good  pious  Catholics.  Of 
Theodorina,  who  was  married  to  a  wealthy  Genoese 
merchant,  nothing  more  need  be  said.  Frances- 
chetto, who  was  thirty-five  years  of  age  at  his 
father's  elevation,  though  married  to  a  daughter 
of  the  magnificent  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  and  made 
Lord  of  Cervetri  and  Anguillara,  remained  to  the 
end  a  mean-spirited  fellow  without  a  spark  of 
ambition  of  any  kind.  So  long  as  he  could  obtain 
money  to  satisfy  his  extravagance  he  was  content ; 
and  he  had  no  scruples  about  the  methods  by  which 
his  money  was  obtained.  As  already  mentioned, 
he  had  made  a  bargain  with  the  Vice-Chancellor  to 
divide  the  fines  by  which  criminals  were  permitted 
to  compound  for  their  felonies.  He  gambled 
heavily  ;  and  it  is  on  record  that  once  having  lost 
40,000  ducats  in  two  nights'  play  at  the  palace 
of  Cardinal  Riario,  he  went  to  the  Pope  and 
28 


INTRODUCTION 

endeavoured  to  get  it  refunded  by  bringing  an 
accusation  of  cheating.  When  Prince  Djem  came 
to  Rome  in  1489  this  hopeful  son  secretly  promised 
to  hand  the  Oriental  over  to  Venice  (at  a  price, 
of  course)  as  soon  as  the  Pope  should  die  ;  and 
when  in  September  of  the  following  year  Inno- 
cent VIII  fell  ill  and  was  believed  to  be  dying, 
Franceschetto  hurried  from  his  father's  bedside  to 
sieze  the  Papal  treasury  and  obtain  possession  of 
the  person  of  Djem — a  project,  however,  which  was 
frustrated  by  the  prompt  action  of  the  cardinals 
and  by  the  Pope's  recovery.  When  at  length  his 
father  did  die  on  August  1492,  the  gambler  sold 
his  territories  of  Cervetri  and  Anguillara  to  Virginio 
Orsini  for  40,000  ducats,  and  went  off  to  Florence 
to  live  under  the  protection  of  his  brother-in-law, 
Piero  de'  Medici. 

The  last  few  months  of  Innocent's  reign  were 
marked  by  entertainments  and  spectacles  of  more 
than  ordinary  splendour.  The  year  opened 
auspiciously,  for  on  January  2,  1492,  Granada 
surrendered  to  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  and  the 
event  was  celebrated  in  Rome  by  illuminations 
and  bonfires  and  processions  and  diversions  of 
every  kind,  including  a  bull  fight,  in  which  five 
bulls  were  slain,  the  first  entertainment  of  its 
kind  which  had  ever  been  seen  in  Rome,  and  which 
was  the  special  contribution  to  the  rejoicings  of 
Cardinal  Rodrigo  Borgia.  In  March  the  young 
cardinal,  Giovanni  de'  Medici,  not  yet  seventeen 
years  of  age,  entered  the  Eternal  City  with  a  degree 
of  pageantry  which  presaged  the  magnificence 

29 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

which  he  was  to  show  after  his  own  accession 
to  the  Papacy  as  Leo  X  twenty-one  years 
later.  In  May,  Don  Ferrantino,  son  of  Alfonso 
of  Calabria,  came  to  Rome  to  celebrate  the  recon- 
ciliation of  Naples  with  the  Papacy ;  and  was 
entertained  by  his  relation  Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza 
with  such  extravagant  splendour  that  the  chronicler 
Infessura  feared  a  description  of  it  would  be  found 
incredible.  Towards  the  end  of  the  same  month, 
an  ambassador  arrived  from  Sultan  Bajazet  bring- 
ing as  a  present  from  his  master  the  head  of  the 
very  lance  which  had  pierced  the  side  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  on  the  Cross.  Although  it  was 
pointed  out  that  both  Paris  and  Nuremberg 
claimed  to  possess  already  this  identical  spear- 
head, Innocent  VIII  declared  for  the  genuineness 
of  the  piece  of  iron  offered  him  by  the  Sultan  ; 
and  on  Ascension  Day  it  was  carried  in  procession 
to  the  Vatican,  when  there  was  great  feasting, 
and  fountains  of  wine  played  in  the  streets  through 
which  the  precious  relic  was  carried.  But  all  this 
outside  show  did  not  hide  the  corruption  beneath. 
The  Milanese  general,  Trivulzio,  roundly  described 
the  Pope  as  "  full  of  greed,  cowardice,  and  base- 
ness, like  any  common  knave " ;  and  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici,  in  an  admonitory  letter  to  his  young 
cardinal  son,  not  unjustly  stigmatised  Rome  as  a 
"  sink  of  iniquity." 

It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  per- 
petual warfare  between  the  five  great  States,  as 
well  as  between  the  other  smaller  States,  of  which 
as  yet  little  mention  has  been  made,  was  carried 
30 


INTRODUCTION 

on  by  means  of  mercenary  troops,  for  to  this 
significant  fact  Machiavelli  attributed  the  ultimate 
ruin  of  Italy.  After  the  breaking  up  of  the  Imperial 
authority  and  the  consequent  division  of  Italy 
into  a  number  of  separate  States,  the  burghers 
of  the  trading  Republics  and  the  Popes  of  Rome, 
being  unaccustomed  to  the  use  and  exercise  of 
arms,  took  foreign  troops  into  their  pay  whenever 
they  had  occasion  for  them.  This  soon  led  to  the 
formation  of  bands  of  adventurers  who  were 
ready  to  sell  their  swords  to  the  highest  bidder. 
Amongst  the  first  of  these  was  a  company  of  men- 
at-arms  led  by  an  Englishman,  Sir  John  Hawk- 
wood,  who  carried  on  a  number  of  campaigns  in 
Italy  between  1360  and  1394.  In  the  succeeding 
century  the  Italians  formed  similar  bands  of  armed 
troops  amongst  themselves,  the  most  eminent  of 
their  leaders  being  Braccio  da  Montone  and 
Attendolo  Sforza.  Having  no  interest  but  pay 
and  plunder,  these  men  invented  a  plan  of  cam- 
paign to  suit  themselves.  Infantry  would  have 
been  useless  to  them  except  in  much  larger  numbers 
than  they  could  maintain,  and  consequently  they 
limited  their  armies  almost  exclusively  to  heavily 
armed  cavalry,  one  squadron  of  which  was  able 
to  rout  a  whole  army  of  foot  before  the  use  of 
gunpowder  revolutionised  the  practice  of  warfare. 
They  protracted  their  campaigns  by  endless 
marching  and  counter- marching ;  they  seldom 
killed  their  opponents  ;  prisoners  of  the  opposing 
army  were  usually  dismissed  without  stipulation 
or  ransom  ;  when  besieging  a  town  they  made  no 

31 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

dangerous  night  attacks,  and  they  put  up  no 
entrenchments  because  they  feared  no  sorties ; 
none  of  them  ever  dreamed  of  such  a  thing  as  a 
winter  campaign ;  and  altogether  the  soldier's 
life  was  made  as  easy  as  this  system  of  chess- 
playing  evolutions  permitted.  Moreover,  on  the 
offer  of  higher  pay,  almost  any  one  of  these  con- 
dottieri  was  ready  to  abandon  his  employer  and 
go  over  to  the  enemy. 

Many  of  these  mercenary  leaders  were  men  of 
low  origin,  whose  military  ability  had  raised 
them  to  positions  of  great  wealth  and  power,  and 
whose  ambition  sometimes  led  them  to  endeavour 
to  subjugate  for  themselves  the  territories  they 
were  employed  to  conquer  for  others.  Braccio 
da  Montone,  one  of  the  most  famous  of  them, 
usurped  the  government  of  Perugia  in  1416,  and 
even  aspired  to  found  a  kingdom.  Giacomo 
Piccinnino,  who  sprang  from  a  family  of  butchers 
in  that  same  town,  only  failed  to  establish  himself 
in  a  lordship  of  his  own  because  Ferrante  of  Aragon 
enticed  him  to  Naples  in  1465  and  murdered  him. 
Muzio  Attendolo  Sforza,  who  was  originally  a  field 
labourer,  became  High  Constable  of  the  kingdom 
of  Naples  ;  and  his  son,  Francesco,  who  succeeded 
to  the  command  of  his  troops,  having  married 
a  daughter  of  Philippo  Maria  Visconti,  succeeded 
his  father-in-law  in  the  great  dukedom  of  Milan. 
All  of  them  did  not  end  so  fortunately,  of  course. 
Francesco  Carmagnola,  for  example,  a  Piedmontese 
who  began  life  as  a  herdsman,  having  first  fought 
with  great  success  in  the  pay  of  the  Visconti  of 
32 


INTRODUCTION 

Milan,  went  over  in  1426  to  the  side  of  Venice, 
when  he  defeated  the  troops  of  Piccinnino  and 
Sforza,  who  were  fighting  on  behalf  of  ^  his  old 
master.  He  was  made  commander-in- chief  of  the 
Venetian  forces,  and  endowed  with  many  valuable 
estates.  But  when,  four  years  later,  Sforza 
defeated  him,  the  suspicions  of  his  employers  seem 
to  have  been  aroused,  and  after  being  received  in 
Venice  with  all  due  pomp  and  honour,  he  was 
thrown  into  prison,  secretly  impeached,  sentenced 
to  death,  and  executed  on  the  Piazza  of  San  Marco, 
without  any  reason  being  publicly  assigned  by 
the  Council  of  Ten.  Braccio  and  Attendolo  Sforza, 
who  were  originally  comrades,  found  it  more 
profitable  to  separate  their  men  into  two  com- 
panies, after  which,  first  in  the  pay  of  one  State, 
then  of  that  State's  opponents,  they  carried  on 
in  opposition  to  one  another  all  the  wars  that 
were  waged  in  Italy  during  the  first  quarter  of  the 
fifteenth  century. 

The  fascinating  and  profitable  trade  of  con- 
dottiere  had  been  taken  up  likewise  by  several  of 
the  minor  princes  of  Italy,  by  the  Montefeltri  of 
Urbino,  the  Malatesta  of  Rimini,  the  Baglioni  of 
Perugia,  the  Varani  of  Camerino,  the  Vitelli  of 
Citta  di  Castello,  and  also  by  the  Colonna,  the 
Orsini,  the  Savelli,  and  other  great  barons  of  Rome. 
These  petty  despots  turned  their  vassals  into 
trained  men-at-arms,  and  went  roving  about  the 
country,  fighting  now  on  one  side  of  a  quarrel, 
now  on  the  other,  seldom  killing  any  of  the  other 
mercenary  soldiers  opposed  to  them,  but  often 

o  33 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

ravaging   and   plundering  the   cities   and   country 
districts  they  invaded  with  much  ferocity. 

The  principles  of  statecraft  which  governed  the 
actions  of  all  these  Italian  rulers,  both  small  and 
great,  may  be  found  laid  down  with  incomparable 
clearness  and  cynicism  in  the  celebrated  Principe 
of  Machiavelli.  They  held  that  to  act  honestly 
and  straightforwardly  in  a  public  capacity  was  not 
only  unnecessary,  but  actually  deleterious.  A 
prudent  ruler  should  dissemble  and  deceive,  though 
always  in  such  a  way  as  to  preserve  an  outward 
show  of  goodness.  He  who  played  the  fox  best 
was  always  the  most  successful ;  and  success  was 
the  only  test  of  merit.  Political  assassination 
became  a  common  occurrence,  and  was  generally 
regarded  as  an  allowable  way  of  getting  rid  of  a 
troublesome  enemy.  We  hear  of  such  expedients 
being  coolly  discussed  and  calmly  determined  on 
in  the  Council  of  Venice.  The  spirit  of  pagan 
individualism  which  had  been  resuscitated  by  the 
new  learning,  and  the  consequent  worship  of  the 
virtues  of  the  heroes  of  antiquity,  had  begot  an 
intense  craving  for  personal  "  glory."  A  man 
must  achieve  fame  of  some  sort,  no  matter  by 
what  means.  The  admiration  which  successful 
treachery  and  brutality  excited  amongst  the 
Italians  of  the  Renascence  is  well  exemplified  by 
the  fact  that  Machiavelli  strongly  blames  Gianpaolo 
Baglioni  for  not  having  strangled  Julius  II  when 
that  Pope  came  to  visit  him  in  Perugia  in  1506. 
It  could  not  have  been  piety  that  restrained  him, 
argues  Machiavelli,  because  the  heart  of  a  man 
34 


INTRODUCTION 

who  had  cohabited  with  his  sister  and  murdered 
many  of  his  other  relations  must  have  been  without 
any  scruples  of  that  kind ;  it  can  only  have  been 
want  of  courage ;  and  in  the  Machiavellian  sense 
this  is  want  of  virtue,  for,  he  says,  Baglioni  must 
have  known  that  the  whole  world  would  have 
admired  such  a  daring  act,  and  he  would  conse- 
quently have  acquired  immortal  "  glory."  Allied 
with  this  spirit,  amongst  the  ruling  class  especially, 
there  was  also  a  degree  of  sensuality  and  lust  that 
is  well  nigh  incredible.  Extravagance,  luxury,  and 
display,  particularly  in  dress,  prevailed  every- 
where, and  the  example  spread  from  the  rich  to 
the  middle  and  even  to  the  lower  classes.  Gambling 
was  prevalent  throughout  Italy,  both  amongst  rich 
and  poor.  Almost  every  town  framed  enactments 
for  its  suppression,  but  with  little  effect.  Sexual 
immorality  was  rampant  to  such  a  degree  that 
Roberto  da  Leece,  a  celebrated  preacher,  pro- 
nounced the  wickedness  of  his  day  to  exceed  that 
of  the  world  before  the  flood.  Illegitimate  children 
were  not  only  accounted  no  disgrace,  but  in  many 
cases  were  brought  up  openly  together  with  a 
man's  legitimate  offspring.  Enea  Silvio  Picco- 
lomini  declares  in  one  of  his  works  that  most  of  the 
rulers  of  Italy  in  his  day  were  born  out  of  wedlock, 
and  states  that  when  Pius  II  came  to  Ferrara  in 
1459  he  was  received  by  seven  princes,  not  one  of 
whom  was  a  legitimate  son.  Nor  was  this  all. 
Gianpaolo  Baglioni  lived  in  open  incest  with  his 
sister  at  Perugia.  Sigismondo  Pandolfo  Mala- 
testa  of  Rimini  murdered  three  wives  and  violated 

35 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

his  own  daughter.  A  princess  of  Ferrara  was 
beheaded  for  adultery  with  her  step-son.  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici  publicly  carried  on  for  years  a  liaison 
with  a  married  lady  of  Florence.  A  Doge  of 
Venice,  Pietro  Mocenigo,  at  the  age  of  seventy, 
exhausted  himself  by  indulgence  with  beautiful 
captive  women  from  Turkey.  And  the  list  might 
be  indefinitely  extended. 

This  state  of  things  is  plainly  reflected  in  the 
literature  and  drama  of  the  time,  the  indecency 
of  which  deserves  to  be  stigmatised  in  the  vigorous 
terms  which  Macaulay  applied  to  our  comic 
dramatists  of  the  Restoration.  Irregular  relations 
between  the  sexes  was  the  favourite  subject ;  and 
it  was  usually  treated  with  the  crudest  realism. 
The  Duke  of  Ferrara  and  Isabella  Gonzaga  of 
Mantua,  two  of  the  most  estimable  characters  of 
their  time,  seem  to  have  found  nothing  objection- 
able in  this  licentious  drama,  and  were  amongst 
its  most  prominent  supporters.  In  Rome  it  was 
patronised  by  many  of  the  cardinals  ;  and  during 
the  reign  of  Alexander  VI  plays  of  a  character 
which  would  not  now  be  tolerated  anywhere 
formed  a  prominent  feature  in  the  festivities  of 
the  Papal  Court.  Several  of  Machiavelli's  letters 
to  his  friend,  Vettori,  are  so  coarse  and  obscene 
that  to  this  day  no  one  has  ventured  to  print 
them.  And  Gregorovius  says  he  has  seen  a  manu- 
script collection  of  poems,  made  in  the  time  of 
Alexander  VI,  in  which  a  series  of  epigrams  begins 
with  several  in  praise  of  the  Holy  Virgin  and 
then,  without  a  break  or  any  word  of  warning, 
36 


INTRODUCTION 

there  follow  several  others  devoted  to  the  glorifica- 
tion of  the  most  famous  courtesans  of  the  day, 
the  Queen  of  Heaven  and  the  votaries  of  Venus 
being  placed  side  by  side  as  equally  admirable 
women.  In  all  the  cities  of  Italy  the  hetairce  were 
very  numerous.  Infessura  estimates  the  number 
in  Rome  in  1490  at  over  six  thousand  ;  while  in 
Venice  and  Naples  there  appear  to  have  been  an 
even  larger  number.  Smaller  towns,  such  as 
Ferrara,  Perugia,  and  Orvieto  published  decrees 
laying  more  or  less  severe  restrictions  on  these 
women,  but  apparently  without  much  effect.  In 
Rome  they  enjoyed  considerable  freedom.  The 
lower  class  lived  in  a  sort  of  Ghetto  in  the  Region 
Ripa,  but  there  were  many  who  lived  luxuriously 
in  splendid  houses  in  the  best  quarters  of  the 
city,  and  were  known  by  such  classic  names  as 
Diana,  Imperia,  Olympia,  and  Penthesilea.  Not 
only  laymen  but  many  of  the  clergy  were  infected 
by  this  prevalent  corruption,  which  in  the  College 
of  Cardinals  first  began  to  be  noticeable  under 
Paul  II,  increased  under  Sixtus  IV  and  Innocent 
VIII,  reached  its  culmination  under  Alexander  VI, 
and  was  not  amended  until  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

The  strange  paradox  in  the  psychology  of  the 
men  of  the  Italian  Renascence  is  that  while  they 
committed  the  vilest  treacheries  and  other  crimes, 
while  they  never  hesitated  to  use  poison  or  poniard 
whenever  it  suited  their  personal  ends,  while 
they  wallowed  in  what  seem  to  us  the  most 
disgusting  and  obscene  orgies,  they  yet  at  the 

37 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

same  time  exhibited  a  manner  of  the  most  polished 
elegance,  and  showed  an  unbounded  delight  in 
poetry,  eloquence,  painting,  architecture,  music, 
in  everything  in  fact  which  is  calculated  to  refine 
the  character  and  the  taste  of  mankind.  Sigis- 
mondo  Pandolfo  Malatesta,  Lord  of  Rimini,  is 
the  best  known  specimen  of  this  type.  An  able 
general,  as  cunning  and  treacherous  as  he  was 
brave,  dissolute,  cruel,  and  inhuman  throughout 
his  whole  life,  who  was  burned  in  effigy  by  Pope 
Pius  II,  who  was  impeached  at  Rome  for  heresy, 
parricide,  incest,  adultery,  rape,  and  sacrilege, 
who  murdered  three  high-born  wives  on  various 
pretexts  one  after  another,  Malatesta  always 
delighted  in  the  society  of  men  of  letters  and 
artists  ;  in  his  intervals  of  leisure  from  fighting 
he  read  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics  with 
enthusiastic  ardour ;  and  on  his  return  home 
from  Greece  brought  back  with  him,  as  the  most 
precious  relic  he  could  find,  the  bones  of  the 
philosopher  Gemisthos  Plethon,  which  he  housed 
splendidly  in  his  own  city,  induced  thereto,  as  the 
inscription  testifies,  "  by  the  great  love  with 
which  he  burns  for  all  learned  men."  His  own 
enduring  monument  is  the  magnificent  cathedral 
church  of  St.  Francis  at  Rimini,  which  he  employed 
his  friend,  Leo  Battista  Alberti,  to  erect,  whereon 
may  still  be  seen  in  the  sculpture  work  which 
adorns  every  arch  his  own  cipher  together  with 
the  initials  of  his  beautiful  concubine,  Isotta  degli 
Atti. 

But  if  we  confined  our  attention  to  this  strange 
38 


INTRODUCTION 

and  fascinating  type  of  mind  we  should  be  apt  to 
paint  the  morality  of  the  Renascence  blacker  than 
it   really   was.     It   has   been   well   said   that   the 
records  of  all  nations  consist  mostly  of  the  relation 
of    crimes,    because    while    vice    and    lawlessness 
always   raise   a   great   commotion,   virtue   usually 
goes  quietly  on  her  way  unnoticed  and  little  heard 
of.     The  existence  of  a  widely  diffused  moral  and 
religious  spirit  amongst  the  Italians   of  the  Re- 
nascence   is    indicated    by    the    constitution    and 
conduct  of  the  numerous  guilds  and  brotherhoods 
of  the  time,  whose  objects,  though  mainly  secular, 
were  almost  invariably  associated  with  charitable 
and   religious   aims.     Hospitals   and   asylums   for 
the  poor,  also,  were  a  marked  feature  of  the  period. 
No  other  country  in  Europe  could  compare  with  the 
splendid  establishments  of  this  kind  which  then 
existed  in  Rome,  Florence,  Siena,  Venice,  and  other 
Italian  cities.     Moreover,  even  art  itself,  which  is 
so  generally  instanced  to  prove  the  predominance 
of  a  pagan  and  unspiritual  spirit,  might  be  cited 
to   prove   precisely   the   reverse,    for   one   careful 
historian  has  shown  that  the  proportion  of  religious 
to  classical  pictures  throughout  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury stands  in  the  proportion  of  twenty  to  one. 
Over  against  the  licentious  comedies  which  found 
such  favour  at  the   courts  of  certain  princes  and 
cardinals  we  must  place  the  pious  Lauds  and  the 
Sacra  Rappresentazione,  which  were  widely  popular. 
The  correspondence  of  Alessandra  Strozzi,  a  noble 
Florentine  lady  of  the  fifteenth  century,  affords  a 
specimen  of  a  healthy,  moral,  and  religious  family 

39 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

life  which  we  are  not  justified  in  assuming  to  have 
been  unique,  or  even  singular.  The  Note-books  of 
Giovanni  Morelli,  in  which  he  tells  the  story  of  his 
own  life  for  the  guidance  of  his  son,  exhibit  a 
specimen,  which  again  we  must  not  assume  to 
have  been  either  unique  or  singular,  of  "  a  model 
Christian  father,  whose  solicitude  for  the  welfare 
of  his  children,  both  temporal  and  spiritual,  begins 
with  early  infancy,  and  follows  them  throughout 
their  lives,  and  even  beyond  the  grave."  Another 
illuminating  instance  is  quoted  by  Pastor  from 
the  Note-book  of  Giovanni  Rucellai  (1475-1526), 
a  man  who  had  amassed  great  wealth  in  business 
and  was  allied  by  marriage  to  the  Medici  family. 
Towards  the  end  of  his  honourable  career,  Rucellai 
could  express  himself  in  the  following  fine  and 
fervently  pious  fashion  :  "I  thank  God  our  Lord 
that  He  has  created  me  a  rational  and  immortal 
being ;  in  a  Christian  country,  close  to  Rome, 
which  is  the  centre  of  the  Christian  faith  ;  in  Italy, 
the  noblest  country  in  Christendom  ;  in  Tuscany, 
one  of  the  noblest  provinces  in  Italy  ;  in  Florence, 
the  most  beautiful  city  not  only  of  Christendom, 
but,  by  common  consent,  of  the  whole  world." 
Then,  after  thanks  for  long  life  and  bodily  health, 
he  goes  on  :  "I  thank  him  also  for  success  in  my 
business,  by  which  I  have  been  enabled  from  small 
beginnings  to  acquire  riches  and  the  confidence  of 
all  men  ;  and  that  it  has  been  given  to  me  not  only 
to  amass  wealth  honourably,  but  also  to  spend  it 
in  like  manner,  which  is  more  difficult  than  the 
acquisition  of  it."  "  I  thank  him  also,"  he  pro- 
40 


INTRODUCTION 

ceeds,  "  for  an  excellent  mother,  who  though  only 
in  her  twentieth  year  at  the  time  of  my  father's 
death,  refused  all  offers  of  marriage  and  devoted 
herself  wholly  to  her  children  ;  and  also  for  an 
equally  excellent  wife,  who  loved  me  truly,  and 
cared  most  faithfully  for  both  household  and 
children  ;  who  was  spared  to  me  for  many  years, 
and  whose  death  has  been  the  greatest  loss  that 
ever  has  or  could  have  befallen  me."  This 
Giovanni  Rucellai,  it  may  be  added,  was  also  a 
scholar  and  a  poet,  author  of  two  successful 
tragedies  and  of  some  eclogues  in  imitation  of 
Virgil. 

We  have  recently  been  told,  with  confident 
iteration,  that  the  self-seeking,  the  intrigues,  the 
treacheries,  the  licentiousness,  and  the  admitted 
crimes  of  Alexander  VI  and  Cesare  Borgia  are  not 
to  be  condemned  because  such  regrettable  failings 
were  common  to  all  the  princes  and  prelates  of  their 
era,  that  no  higher  ideal  of  life  then  existed,  and 
that  it  was  impossible  for  any  man  in  high  place 
to  conduct  himself  much  otherwise  than  they  did 
in  the  miasmatic  moral  atmosphere  of  the  time. 
The  answer  to  this  is  twofold.  In  the  first  place, 
self-seeking,  intrigue,  treachery,  licentiousness,  and 
crime  are  to  be  condemned,  whether  common  or 
exceptional,  and  whether  exhibited  in  the  fifteenth 
or  the  twentieth  century.  Moreover,  it  is  one 
thing  to  find  some  excuse  for  a  criminal  on  account 
of  his  evil  environment,  and  quite  another  thing 
to  hold  up  the  greatest  criminal  of  an  evil  time 
to  our  admiration,  which  is  what  some  of  the 

41 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Borgian  apologists  have  done.  In  the  second 
place,  it  is  not  true  to  say  that  no  man  in  high 
place  could  escape  the  admittedly  prevalent  moral 
contagion  of  the  time.  Several  instances  to  the 
contrary  might  be  given ;  but  it  may  suffice  to 
draw  attention  to  the  character  and  career  of  one 
secular  and  one  ecclesiastical  prince  of  that  day  ; 
to  the  chivalrous  Federigo  Duke  of  Urbino,  and 
to  the  venerable  Cardinal  Capranica. 

The  secular  prince  is  probably  the  better  known 
of  the  two  by  reason  of  Dennistoun's  "  Memoirs 
of  the  Dukes  of  Urbino,"  and  of  J.  A.  Symonds's 
sympathetic  sketch  in  his  "  Renaissance  in  Italy." 
Federigo's  little  duchy,  only  some  forty  miles 
square  and  consisting  mainly  of  bare  hillsides  and 
uncultivated  ravines,  contained  a  capital  and  a 
court  to  which  the  young  nobles  of  Italy  flocked, 
both  to  imbibe  culture  and  manners  and  to  learn 
the  art  of  war.  Federigo  was  a  condottiere  by 
trade,  who  was  excelled  as  a  general  by  no  com- 
mander of  his  time,  and  who,  indeed,  never  lost 
a  battle.  He  did  not  confine  himself  any  more 
than  other  such  generals  to  the  service  of  any  one 
State,  although  for  many  years  he  remained  in 
the  exclusive  pay  of  Naples.  He  acted  like  a 
father  to  his  subjects.  When,  in  time  of  famine, 
his  avaricious  paymaster  Alfonso  made  money  out 
of  monopolies  of  food-stuffs,  Federigo  filled  his 
granaries  with  corn  and  sold  it  extra  cheap  to  his 
poor  dependents.  He  looked  after  the  destitute, 
provided  for  orphans,  and  made  loans  to  tem- 
porarily distressed  traders.  He  was  an  admirable 
42 


INTRODUCTION 

scholar,  a  patron  of  the  arts  and  of  learning ;  he 
formed  a  fine  library,  and  filled  Urbino  with 
priceless  treasures  of  art.  At  his  Court  there  was 
no  gambling  or  swearing,  but  men,  and  women 
also,  there  conversed  with  intelligence  and  sobriety. 
He  kept  open  hall,  but  took  plain  food  himself,  and 
drank  no  wine.  At  his  table  it  was  the  custom 
to  have  books  read  out,  spiritual  works  in  Lent, 
at  other  times  the  famous  classics  of  antiquity. 
He  was  sincerely  pious,  hearing  Mass  on  his  knees 
every  morning,  and  strictly  observing  the  rites 
of  his  Church.  He  was  a  good  husband,  a  constant 
friend,  without  reproach  in  his  relations  with 
women,  and  he  never  failed  in  the  strictest  obser- 
vance of  good  faith,  so  that  once  he  had  given  his 
word  everybody  knew  that  he  would  stand  to  it 
under  any  circumstances.  Yet,  notwithstanding 
all  these  conspicuous  virtues,  which  we  are  told 
the  Borgia  could  only  have  practised  at  the  cost 
of  their  ruin,  his  duchy  flourished  and  stood  secure 
when  those  of  some  other  perfidious  and  un- 
scrupulous princes  crumbled  away  or  were  over- 
whelmed. 

The  history  of  the  ecclesiastical  Prince,  of 
which  an  all  too  brief  account  is  to  be  found  in 
the  admirable  "  History '  of  Pastor,  is  equally 
illuminating.  Domenico  Capranica,  who  was  born 
in  the  year  1400,  from  his  earliest  youth  showed  a 
great  love  of  learning  ;  and  after  studying  civil 
and  canon  law  at  the  University  of  Padua,  con- 
tinued these  legal  studies  with  great  zeal  at 
Bologna.  He  was  a  favourite  with  all  his  teachers, 

43 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

and  he  outstripped  all  his  companions  not  only 
in  his  own  special  abstruse  subjects,  but  in  the 
study  of  polite  literature  also.  His  modesty  was 
as  remarkable  as  his  assiduity  ;  and  throughout 
the  whole  of  his  student  life  he  was  never  known 
to  take  part  in  merry-makings  or  festivities  even 
of  an  innocent  character.  He  received  his  doctor's 
cap  at  the  age  of  one-and-twenty ;  and  soon 
afterwards  Martin  V,  who  was  a  friend  of  his 
family,  made  him  a  clerk  of  the  Apostolic  Chamber. 
His  official  work  caused  little  interruption  of  his 
studies ;  and  we  are  told  that  St.  Augustine, 
St.  Jerome,  Cassian,  and  Seneca  were  his  favourite 
and  constant  reading.  After  he  had  acquitted 
himself  satisfactorily  in  several  difficult  matters 
of  negotiation,  and  distinguished  himself  both  as 
a  leader  of  the  Papal  troops  and  as  Governor  of 
Perugia,  Martin  V  raised  him  to  the  purple  in 
1430.  Unfortunately,  before  Capranica  could  go 
to  Rome  to  receive  his  hat  and  ring,  Martin  V 
died  ;  and,  as  a  connection  of  the  Colonna  family 
was  obnoxious  to  the  Orsini,  who  were  just  then 
in  the  ascendant,  they  were  able  to  prevent  his 
being  in  Rome  for  the  Conclave.  After  the  election 
of  Eugenius  IV,  moreover,  they  managed  to  pre- 
judice the  new  Pope  against  him  so  strongly  that 
the  dignity  of  cardinal  was  denied  him.  They 
even  plundered  his  house  in  Rome,  and  scattered 
his  precious  library.  Capranica  calmly  appealed 
to  the  Council  then  sitting  at  Basle ;  and  although 
in  the  meantime  Eugenius  IV  deprived  him  of  his 
benefices  and  confiscated  his  patrimony,  so  that 
44 


INTRODUCTION 

he  was  reduced  to  great  poverty,  yet  when  a 
settlement  was  effected  in  his  favour  two  years 
later,  he  came  to  an  understanding  with  Eugenius 
in  a  spirit  of  perfect  friendliness.  Without  losing 
his  independence  for  a  moment,  or  failing  to 
protest  against  any  measure  which  he  considered 
unwise  or  unjust,  he  fairly  won  the  favour  of  the 
previously  hostile  Pope,  and  not  of  the  Pope 
only  but  of  the  whole  of  Rome,  so  that  on  the 
death  of  Eugenius  it  was  generally  expected,  or 
at  least  generally  hoped,  that  he  would  be  elevated 
to  the  Papal  Chair.  The  opposition  to  the  Colonna 
faction,  however,  was  once  more  too  great,  and  a 
poor  and  scarcely  known  cardinal  ascended  the 
throne  as  Nicholas  V.  During  the  eight  years 
reign  of  this  admirable  Pope,  Capranica  filled 
important  offices  and  discharged  difficult  legations 
with  conspicuous  success,  exhibiting  all  the  time  a 
genuine  and  ardent  devotion  to  the  best  interests 
of  the  Church.  On  the  death  of  Nicholas  V  in 
1455  it  seemed  once  more  as  though  Capranica 
would  be  elevated  to  the  Papacy  ;  but  again  there 
was  such  a  division  of  parties  that  Calixtus  III 
was  chosen  as  a  stop-gap.  During  the  plague 
which  ravaged  Rome  in  1456  Capranica  alone 
of  the  cardinals  remained  at  his  post  in  the  infected 
city  ;  and  he  displayed  equal  courage  in  another 
direction  by  protesting  against  the  extravagance 
of  Calixtus  in  the  endowment  of  his  rapacious 
and  unworthy  relations.  But  the  Borgian  nephews 
were  too  powerful  for  him  ;  and  his  steady  refusal 
to  acquiesce  in  the  Pope's  appointment  of  his 

45 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

favourite  nephew,  Don  Pedro  Luis,  to  the  duke- 
dom of  Spoleto  aroused  such  bitter  animosity  that 
Capranica  was  forced  to  retire  almost  altogether 
from  public  life.  Yet  such  was  his  reputation  for 
piety,  for  learning,  for  decision  of  character,  and 
for  political  ability,  that  on  the  death  of  Calixtus  III 
in  1458  he  would  undoubtedly  have  been  elected 
as  the  next  Pope,  with  the  approbation  of  every 
Roman  faction  as  well  as  of  every  prince  in  Italy, 
but  for  the  lamentable  fact  that  he  fell  ill  of  fever 
at  the  same  time  as  Calixtus,  and  died  just  as  the 
negotiations  for  his  election  were  in  process  of 
being  completed. 

His  contemporaries  are  unanimous  in  testifying 
that  the  life  of  Capranica  was  that  of  a  saint. 
Four  hours  were  all  that  he  ever  allowed  himself 
for  sleep ;  immediately  after  rising  he  recited 
the  Hours,  went  to  confession,  and  said  or  heard 
Mass  ;  then,  before  granting  audiences,  he  regularly 
devoted  several  hours  to  the  study  of  the  Fathers. 
Although  he  lived  in  a  palace  suited  to  his  dignity, 
luxury  and  splendour  were  conspicuous  by  their 
absence  ;  and  his  own  dinner  invariably  consisted 
but  of  one  dish.  No  women  were  ever  permitted 
to  enter  his  apartments,  not  even  his  sister  or  other 
relations.  He  detested  court  ceremonies,  and 
rebuked  those  prelates  who  forsook  their  churches 
in  order  to  seek  advancement  by  haunting  the 
Vatican.  His  own  ecclesiastical  household  con- 
sisted exclusively  of  men  chosen  for  their  merit, 
to  whom  he  showed  himself  more  as  a  father  than 
a  master.  He  was  ever  sterner  to  himself  than 
46 


INTRODUCTION 

to  others  ;  and  his  friends  were  earnestly  requested 
to  point  out  frankly  any  faults  they  might  discern 
in  him.  Never,  even  in  joke,  it  is  said,  would  he 
permit  himself  to  utter  a  falsehood.  He  was  a 
lover  of  learning,  and  the  founder  of  the  first 
college  ever  instituted  in  Rome  for  the  benefit  of 
poor  scholars — an  institution  which  still  exists  and 
bears  his  name.  In  this  and  other  ways  his 
liberality  and  charity  were  so  great  that  he  fre- 
quently found  himself  in  pecuniary  difficulties. 
After  his  demise  it  was  found  that  all  his  worldly 
goods  had  been  bequeathed  to  the  Church,  for 
in  his  view  he  was  not  the  owner  but  merely  the 
steward  thereof,  and  therefore  not  justified  in 
leaving  to  his  relations  what  properly  belonged 
to  the  poor.  When  he  died,  just  eight  days  after 
Calixtus  III,  the  Milanese  ambassador  wrote  to 
his  Duke,  saying  :  "  The  wisest,  the  most  perfect, 
the  most  learned,  and  the  holiest  prelate  whom 
the  Church  in  our  day  has  possessed  is  gone  from 
us.  His  whole  life  was  devoted  to  the  exaltation 
of  the  Roman  Church.  He  was  the  pillar  of  Italian 
peace,  and  a  mirror  of  piety  and  all  sanctity." 
Had  Capranica  been  elected  instead  of  Calixtus  III 
in  1455,  or  had  a  prelate  of  similar  mind  and 
character  ascended  the  Papal  throne  in  1492 
instead  of  Rodrigo  Borgia,  the  subsequent  history 
of  Rome  and  of  all  Italy  would  have  been  a  very 
different  story. 


47 


II 

THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

WHEN  the  Duke  of  Ferrara's  ambassadors  were 
instructed  to  learn  everything  worthy  of  account 
n  the  history  of  the  "  illustrious  House  of  Borgia  " 
in  order  to  provide  matter  for  a  complimentary 
oration  on  the  occasion  of  Lucrezia  Borgia's  mar- 
riage to  Alfonso  d'Este  in  1501,  those  ambassadors 
wrote  to  their  sovereign  saying  that  after  a 
thorough  investigation  into  the  records  of  that 
ancient  and  noble  Spanish  family  they  had  been 
able  to  find  nothing  worthy  of  note  before  the 
time  of  Lucrezia's  great-uncle,  Pope  Calixtus  III. 
And,  however  undiplomatic  such  a  confession 
may  be  considered,  it  was  undoubtedly  true  ;  for 
although  the  Borgian  heralds  would  have  pro- 
duced with  great  confidence  a  complete  genealogical 
tree  showing  the  descent  of  that  family  from  the 
old  Kings  of  Aragon,  there  is  really  no  evidence 
in  support  of  such  a  pedigree.  The  origin  of  the 
family  is  lost  in  obscurity  ;  and  its  name  first 
emerges  into  the  light  of  history  in  1429,  when 
Alonzo  de  Borja,  private  secretary  and  intimate 
counsellor  to  Alfonso  of  Aragon,  rendered  a  signal 
service  to  the  Holy  See  by  persuading  the  anti- 
Pope  Clement  VIII  to  lay  aside  his  papal  trap- 
48 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

pings  and  subside  into  insignificance  as  Bishop  of 
Majorca. 

Alonzo  de  Borja,  who  was  born  at  Xativa  in 
Valencia  in  1378,  came  of  a  race  remarkable  for 
bodily  strength,  mental  vigour,  powerful  will,  great 
personal  beauty,  and  pronounced  sensuality.  He 
was  educated  at  the  University  of  Lerida,  where 
his  abilities  won  him  first  a  professorship  and 
subsequently  a  canonry.  The  young  priest  was 
evidently  a  youth  of  fair  promise,  for  when  the 
Dominican  Vincent  Ferrer  came  on  a  mission  to 
Valencia  that  great  preacher  singled  out  Borja 
from  the  crowd  of  his  assistants  and  told  him  he 
was  destined  to  become  the  ornament  of  his  house 
and  his  country,  and  would  rise  to  the  highest 
dignity  attainable  by  man.  Soon  after  this  young 
Borja  appears  to  have  turned  his  attention  to 
politics,  and  to  have  become  private  secretary  to 
Alfonso  of  Aragon,  afterwards  also  King  of  Naples, 
in  whose  service  he  remained  for  many  years  and 
with  whom  he  lived  on  terms  of  intimate  friend- 
ship, rendering  great  service  to  the  king  in  re- 
organising the  conquered  kingdom  of  Naples,  and 
taking  a  prominent  part  in  the  most  important 
affairs  both  of  the  Church  and  of  the  State.  In 
1429  his  services  in  bringing  about  the  resignation 
of  the  anti-Pope  earned  the  gratitude  of  Martin  V, 
who  conferred  on  him  the  bishopric  of  Valencia. 
In  1444  his  powers  of  persuasion  were  again 
brought  conspicuously  into  play  when  he  induced 
Pope  Eugenius  IV  to  confirm  the  crown  of  Naples 
to  Alfonso  I  and  to  legitimise  that  monarch's 

D  49 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

bastard,  Don  Ferrante.  Shortly  after  this,  in 
return  for  his  skill  as  peacemaker  between  King 
and  Pope,  Alonzo  de  Borja,  whose  name  had  now 
become  Italianised  into  Alfonso  Borgia,  was  raised 
to  the  cardinalate.  Nothing  of  any  special  note 
is  recorded  of  Cardinal  Alfonso  Borgia  during  the 
succeeding  ten  years,  but  in  1455,  doubtless  as 
much  to  his  own  as  to  everybody  else's  surprise, 
he  fulfilled  the  prediction  of  St.  Vincent  Ferrer. 

After  the  funeral  of  Nicholas  V  there  were 
several  candidates  for  the  Papacy.  At  first  the 
tiara  seemed  destined  to  descend  upon  the  worthy 
head  of  Cardinal  Capranica ;  but  his  being  a 
friend  and  connection  of  the  Colonna  brought 
about  such  opposition  from  the  Orsini  faction  that 
it  became  advisable  to  pass  him  by.  Cardinal 
Bessarion  then  became  the  favourite ;  but  on 
invincible  opposition  being  raised  to  the  elevation 
of  a  bearded  Greek  to  the  headship  of  the  Latin 
Church,  the  Electoral  College  was  again  thrown 
into  confusion.  At  length,  by  way  of  compromise, 
they  agreed  upon  the  Spanish  cardinal  Borgia,  who 
on  April  28,  1455,  was  proclaimed  Pope  in  the 
name  of  Calixtus  III.  Alfonso  Borgia  was 
admittedly  a  persuasive  diplomatist,  a  man  of 
first-rate  business  capacity,  and  a  jurist  of  con- 
siderable repute  ;  moreover,  unlike  the  majority 
of  his  colleagues  in  the  Curia,  he  had  led  a  life 
free  from  scandal.  In  handsomeness  of  person, 
in  energy  of  body,  in  strength  of  will,  and  in 
charm  of  manner,  he  seems  to  have  been  no  less 
gifted  than  other  members  of  his  family.  But 
50 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

in  several  respects  his  character  stands  out  in 
shining  contrast  with  his  more  celebrated  rela- 
tives. His  contemporaries  agree  in  describing 
him  as  an  old  man  of  honourable  and  virtuous 
life.  As  bishop,  and  as  cardinal,  he  had  declined 
all  other  preferment.  Pomp  and  splendour 
were  distasteful  to  him  ;  but  though  austere  him- 
self, he  was  indulgent  to  others.  Men  of  letters, 
who  were  disappointed  to  find  that  he  devoted 
all  his  energies  and  all  the  revenues  of  the  Holy 
See  to  the  prosecution  of  a  Crusade  instead  of  to 
the  patronage  of  learning,  have  charged  him  with 
being  an  enemy  to  humanistic  culture.  It  would 
be  truer  to  say  that  his  absorption  in  other  matters 
caused  him  to  be  indifferent  to  it.  But  he  was  by 
no  means  devoid  of  all  intellectual  interests.  He 
loved  to  discourse  on  legal  matters,  and  showed 
in  his  old  age  as  great  a  familiarity  with  laws  and 
canons  as  if  he  were  but  just  fresh  from  their 
study  in  the  University.  But  he  was  elected,  not 
on  account  of  any  mental  recommendations,  but 
because  in  the  existing  state  of  parties  the  other 
cardinals  thought  it  well  to  choose  a  feeble  and 
inoffensive  veteran  of  seventy- seven  who  in  all 
human  probability  could  not  for  long  occupy  the 
Papal  chair.  The  Orsini  faction,  however,  were 
unable  altogether  to  smother  their  impatience  and 
vexation  at  the  failure  of  one  of  their  family  to 
secure  the  Papal  crown ;  and  on  the  day  of 
Calixtus's  coronation  they  broke  out  into  what 
might  easily  have  become  a  very  disastrous  tumult. 
The  ostensible  cause  of  the  riot  was  a  quarrel 

51 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

between  one  of  the  followers  of  the  Count  of 
Anguillara  and  one  of  the  Orsini,  causing  high 
words  and  blows  amongst  the  excited  crowd, 
whereupon  Napoleone  Orsini  raised  his  war-cry, 
and,  having  speedily  collected  3000  men,  threatened 
to  storm  the  Lateran  and  drag  the  offending 
Anguillara  from  the  sacred  edifice,  notwithstanding 
the  presence  of  the  Pope  himself.  Fortunately 
Cardinal  Latino  Orsini  was  able  to  calm  the  rage 
of  his  infuriated  brother,  and  so  prevent  the 
coronation  festivities  of  the  feeble  old  Pope  from 
being  stained  with  bloodshed.  After  this  experience 
Calixtus  did  his  best  to  keep  the  peace  between  the 
rival  factions  in  Rome  ;  and  feuds  during  his  reign 
were  certainly  somewhat  rarer  than  usual.  But 
his  nephews  never  forgave  the  Orsini  ;  and  by 
keeping  up  a  close  intimacy  with  the  Colonna  they 
naturally  incurred  the  deadly  enmity  of  that 
family's  hereditary  antagonists. 

But,  old  and  feeble  as  Calixtus  was,  there  were 
two  objects  which  he  pursued  with  unflagging 
energy  and  zeal  throughout  the  three  years  of  his 
reign.  The  first  was  a  crusade  against  the  Turks. 
Almost  his  first  public  act  was  a  solemn  vow  to 
Almighty  God  and  the  Holy  Trinity  that,  "  by 
war,  maledictions,  interdicts,  excommunications," 
and  all  other  means  in  his  power  he  would  pursue 
those  foes  of  the  Christian  name  to  the  death. 
His  ardour  in  this  one  absorbing  cause  left  no 
room  for  the  carrying  on  of  his  predecessor's 
magnificent  scheme  for  the  architectural  and  artistic 
adornment  of  Rome.  Nicholas  V's  buildings  re- 
52 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

mained  unfinished  and  the  workmen  were  dis- 
missed. The  few  painters  who  were  retained  in 
the  city  were  no  longer  required  to  decorate 
palaces  and  churches,  but  were  solely  employed  in 
colouring  standards  to  be  borne  against  the  Infidel. 
Men  of  letters  found  no  patronage  ;  for  all  the 
money  in  the  ecclesiastical  treasury,  all  that  could 
be  added  to  it  by  the  lavish  sale  of  indulgences,  all 
that  the  Pope  could  raise  by  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Papal  jewellery,  and  even  by  the  sale  of  some  of 
the  splendidly  bound  books  of  the  Vatican  library, 
was  devoted  to  the  building  of  a  fleet.  And  all 
over  Europe  his  emissaries  were  despatched  in 
swarms  to  stir  up  Christendom  to  a  united  effort 
against  the  common  foe.  The  energy  displayed  by 
this  sick  and  aged  Pontiff  was  amazing ;  but  in 
spite  of  all  his  exertions,  Germany,  France,  Spain, 
England,  all  found  reasons  satisfactory  to  them- 
selves for  holding  aloof  ;  and  although  the  heroic 
John  Hunyadi  in  July  1456  drove  Bajazet  from 
the  walls  of  Belgrade,  the  victory  was  not  followed 
up  by  concerted  action ;  and  a  golden  opportunity 
was  allowed  to  let  slip  of  sending  the  Turk  bag 
and  baggage  out  of  Europe. 

As  Mandell  Creighton  aptly  remarks,  the  weak- 
ness of  Calixtus  III  left  more  permanent  results 
than  did  his  strength  ;  for  the  second  object  to 
which  the  energies  of  the  old  man  were  devoted, 
the  aggrandisement  of  his  nephews,  was  pregnant 
with  momentous  consequences  to  the  Church  and 
to  Italy.  Calixtus  was  by  no  means  the  initiator 
of  Papal  nepotism,  which  had  commenced  thirty 

53 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

years  previously  under  Martin  V,  who  had  so 
profusely  provided  his  relations  with  towns  and 
fortresses  and  estates  that  the  Colonna  became 
petty  rulers  throughout  the  greater  part  of  Latium. 
Neither  did  he  carry  his  nepotism  to  such  a  length 
as  did  some  of  his  successors,  notably  Sixtus  IV. 
Moreover,  he  was  a  man  of  real  piety,  unosten- 
tatious, charitable,  and  attentive  to  his  religious 
duties ;  so  that  we  may  readily  believe,  with 
Gregorovius,  that  "  could  he  have  foreseen  how 
his  blind  affection  for  his  nephews  was  to  render 
the  hitherto  stainless  name  of  his  family  a  synonym 
for  all  infamy  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  it  is 
probable  that  he  would  rather  have  banished  the 
sons  of  his  sisters  to  the  darkest  dungeons  of 
Spain." 

Calixtus's  relations  were  very  numerous  ;  and 
many  members  of  the  three  allied  families  of 
Borja,  Mila,  and  Lan£ol  flocked  to  Rome  in  hope 
of  advancement.  Three  nephews  in  particular, 
Pedro  Luis  and  Rodrigo  Langol,  sons  of  the  Pope's 
sister  Isabella,  and  Luis  Juan  de  Mila,  son  of 
Calixtus's  sister  Catalina,  were  loaded  with  dignities 
and  favours  of  all  kinds.  Their  doting  uncle 
adopted  them  all,  and  conferred  upon  them  his 
own  family  name,  in  its  Italianised  form  of  Borgia, 
together  with  his  coat  of  arms,  a  red  bull  on  a  gold 
field.  Within  a  month  of  Calixtus's  coronation, 
Rodrigo  de  Lan£ol  (now  Rodrigo  Borgia),  a  remark- 
ably handsome,  vigorous  and  fascinating  young 
man  of  five-and-twenty,  was  made  notary  of  the 
Apostolic  See ;  and  a  few  weeks  later  was  sent  off 
54 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

to  Bologna  to  study  jurisprudence,  travelling  thither 
in  company  with  his  cousin,  Luis  Juan  de  Mila 
(now  Luis  Juan  Borgia),  a  youth  of  twenty,  who 
had  been  appointed  governor  of  that  city.  As 
early  as  February  1456  these  two  young  nephews 
were  secretly  made  cardinals.  Neither  of  them 
had  done  anything  to  merit  the  dignity  ;  and  it 
was  so  flagrant  a  violation  of  Calixtus's  promises 
on  his  election  that  he  did  not  venture  to  publish 
their  elevation  until  the  following  September,  when 
nearly  every  member  of  the  Sacred  College  had 
left  Rome  on  account  of  the  heat.  In  November 
they  were  recalled  from  Bologna,  and  made  their 
ceremonial  entry  into  Rome.  In  December  Rodrigo 
was  appointed  Legate  in  the  March  of  Ancona,  and 
Luis  Juan,  Legate  of  Bologna,  both  of  them  being 
at  the  same  time  richly  endowed  with  benefices. 
In  the  following  year  Rodrigo  was  made  Vice- 
Chancellor,  the  highest  dignity  in  the  Church  after 
that  of  the  Pope,  as  well  as  the  most  important 
and  lucrative  office  of  the  Papal  Court.  Don  Pedro 
Luis,  Rodrigo's  elder  brother,  who  was  the  Pope's 
favourite,  preferred  a  secular  career.  He  was 
created  Duke  of  Spoleto,  appointed  Gonfaloniere 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  castellan  of  all  the 
pontifical  fortresses,  governor  of  the  cities  of  Terni, 
Narni,  Todi,  Rieti,  Orvieto,  Spoleto,  Foligno, 
Nocere,  Assisi,  Amelia,  Civita  Castellana,  and 
Nepi,  and  in  1457  was  also  made  Prefect  of  Rome 
and  put  in  possession  of  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo. 
These  vigorous  young  Borgian  nephews  made  hay 
while  the  sun  shone ;  and  such  was  their  influence 

55 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

with  their  uncle  that  any  cardinal  who  showed 
himself  in  the  least  degree  opposed  to  them  was 
promptly  got  out  of  the  way.  Cardinals  Capranica, 
Carvajal  and  Cusa  were  sent  on  distant  embassies  ; 
Cardinal  Scarampo,  much  against  the  grain,  was 
compelled  to  cruise  about  the  Mgean  as  admiral 
of  the  Papal  fleet ;  Cardinal  Orsini  was  driven  to 
retire  from  Rome  lest  worse  should  befall  him. 
Most  of  the  others,  some  from  policy,  some  perhaps 
from  genuine  liking,  remained  on  good  terms  with 
the  temporarily  all-powerful  Borgia.  Adventurers 
of  all  kinds,  Neapolitans  as  well  as  Spaniards, 
swarmed  to  Rome  and  crowded  round  the  wild  and 
splendid  Don  Pedro  Luis,  who,  though  as  hand- 
some and  graceful  and  fascinating  as  any  of  his 
race,  was  not  equally  endowed  with  intellect  and 
energy.  These  "  Catalans,"  as  they  were  popularly 
termed,  secured  every  civil  post  in  the  city  that 
was  worth  having ;  they  were  insolent  and  over- 
bearing towards  the  Roman  citizens ;  and  the 
management  of  the  police,  which  was  entirely  in 
their  hands,  became  so  incompetent  or  so  corrupt 
that  robberies  and  murders  in  the  streets  were  of 
common  occurrence.  The  old  and  sickly  Pope, 
immured  in  the  Vatican,  and  engrossed  with  his 
Crusade,  appears  to  have  known  nothing  of  all 
this,  but  to  have  imagined  that  his  trusted  nephews 
were  dealing  quite  satisfactorily  with  the  adminis- 
trative affairs  of  Rome. 

One  of  the  fears  which  had  been  generally 
entertained  on  the  election  of  Calixtus  III  had  been 
that,  in  consequence  of  his  long  and  intimate  con- 
56 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

nection  with  Alfonso  of  Aragon,  the  affairs  of  the 
Holy  See  would  be  unduly  influenced  from  Naples  ; 
and  the  Neapolitan  king  himself  doubtless  imagined 
that  he  would  be  able  to  have  very  much  his  own 
way  with  his  former  private  secretary.  But  matters 
fell  out  quite  contrary  to  this  expectation.  Alfonso 
seems  to  have  offended  Calixtus  at  the  outset  by 
trying  to  make  terms  concerning  his  obedience. 
He  asked  Calixtus  to  hand  over  to  him  the  March 
of  Ancona  and  other  territories  of  the  Church,  a 
request  which  the  Pope  bluntly  refused.  He  also 
requested  bishoprics  in  his  own  dominions  for 
candidates  whom  Calixtus  refused  to  institute  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  too  young  and  ignorant. 
"  Let  the  King  of  Aragon  rule  in  his  own  king- 
doms," said  the  Pope,  "  and  leave  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Holy  See  to  ourselves."  Two  other 
matters  also  served  to  inflame  the  anger  of  Calixtus 
against  his  former  friend  and  patron.  Alfonso 
privately  aided  Piccinnino  when  the  Pope,  in 
conjunction  with  Venice,  Florence  and  Milan,  was 
endeavouring  to  drive  that  redoubtable  condottiere 
out  of  central  Italy.  And,  what  was  even  more 
galling,  instead  of  sending  his  galleys,  which  had 
been  partly  paid  for  out  of  the  Church's  money,  to 
co-operate  with  the  Papal  fleet  against  the  Turks, 
Alfonso  had  despatched  them  against  Genoa  in 
furtherance  of  a  private  quarrel  of  his  own.  In 
March  1458  the  Pope's  nephews  endeavoured  to 
bring  about  a  reconciliation  with  Naples,  but 
although  out  of  consideration  to  them  the  Pope 
might  have  given  way,  Alfonso  had  by  that  time 

57 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

become  irreconcilable.  Three  months  later,  on 
June  27,  Alfonso  of  Aragon  died.  The  very  next 
day  Cardinal  Rodrigo  Borgia  was  made  Bishop  of 
Valencia,  and  Cardinal  Luis  Juan  Borgia,  as  well 
as  other  relatives,  received  a  number  of  benefices 
which  had  been  in  dispute  between  the  Pope  and 
the  late  king.  But  this  was  not  all.  Calixtus  at 
once  refused  to  recognise  the  succession  of  Alfonso's 
natural  son  Ferrante,  and  declared  his  intention  to 
recover  Naples  as  a  lapsed  fief  of  the  Church.  The 
Pope's  objection  that  Ferrante  had  no  right  to  the 
throne  because  he  was  not  even  the  natural  son 
of  Alfonso  was  a  mere  pretext,  and  came  with  a 
peculiarly  bad  grace  from  the  man  who  had  pro- 
cured Ferrante's  legitimation.  As  the  Milanese 
ambassador  pointed  out,  Calixtus's  real  motive 
was  the  desire  to  secure  the  kingdom  of  Naples  for 
his  favourite  nephew  Don  Pedro  Luis,  whom  in 
his  blind  fondness  he  imagined  to  be  a  second 
Julius  Caesar.  On  July  14  the  Pope  issued  a  Bull 
claiming  Sicily  as  a  lapsed  fief,  forbidding  its 
subjects  to  swear  fealty  to  any  pretender  to  the 
crown,  loosing  from  their  obligation  any  who  had 
already  taken  such  oath,  and  summoning  all  the 
claimants  to  Rome.  He  then  commanded  Don 
Pedro  Luis  to  levy  troops  as  a  demonstration  against 
Naples.  Ferrante  was  not  the  sort  of  man  to  sit 
still  while  this  sort  of  thing  was  going  in.  The 
messengers  who  brought  the  Papal  Bull  into  his 
dominions  were  seized  and  beaten  ;  and  a  congress 
was  immediately  summoned  at  Capua  at  which  the 
Neapolitan  barons  were  called  upon  to  rally  round 
58 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

him  and  repel  the  Pope's  pretensions.  Fortunately 
for  Ferrante,  he  was  at  once  acknowledged  as  king 
by  Duke  Sforza  of  Milan  and  by  Cosmo  de'  Medici 
of  Florence,  who  united  in  his  support  out  of 
fear  both  of  the  pretensions  of  the  Pope  and  of  the 
King  of  France.  Nevertheless,  a  disastrous  war 
would  inevitably  have  ensued  but  for  the  death  of 
Calixtus  III  in  the  following  month.  One  of  his 
last  acts,  whilst  lying  on  his  death-bed,  was  to 
bestow  the  vicariate  of  Terracina  and  Benevento 
on  his  beloved  nephew  Don  Pedro  Luis,  those  two 
cities  having  indisputably  reverted  to  the  Holy 
See  on  the  demise  of  Alfonso  I.  Except  for  his 
deplorable  nepotism,  Calixtus  III  was  not  a  bad 
Pope  ;  and  he  deserves  high  praise  for  the  energy 
and  perseverance  of  his  resistance  to  the  Turkish 
power,  a  matter  the  importance  of  which  to 
Western  civilisation  he  alone  of  all  the  potentates 
of  Italy  seemed  adequately  to  realise. 

Anticipating  great  disorder  in  Rome  as  soon  as 
the  dying  Pope's  end  should  be  announced,  the 
Sacred  College  took  measures  to  deal  with  it  in 
time.  A  Commission  of  four  of  its  members  was 
appointed  for  the  purpose,  who  first  occupied  the 
Capitol  with  a  force  of  two  hundred  troops,  and 
then  proceeded  to  treat  with  Don  Pedro  Luis. 
This  splendid  but  not  over-brave  cavalier,  seeing 
that  it  would  be  unsafe  for  him  to  remain  in  Rome 
after  the  Pope's  death,  surrendered  to  them  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo  and  the  other  fortresses  of 
which  he  was  castellan,  in  consideration  of  receiving 
in  advance  a  sum  of  22,000  ducats  to  which  he 

59 


would  become  entitled  under  his  uncle's  will.  The 
Orsini,  who  bore  him  deadly  enmity,  had  already 
begun  to  take  up  arms,  and  they  watched  every 
road  to  prevent  his  escape.  But  in  the  sheltering 
darkness  of  the  night  of  August  5  his  brother 
Rodrigo  and  Cardinal  Barbo  smuggled  him  out  of 
the  city,  when,  although  he  was  already  so  dis- 
credited as  well  as  detested  that  the  escort  of 
soldiers  with  which  his  protectors  had  provided 
him  refused  to  accompany  him  any  further  than 
the  Porta  del  Popolo,  he  managed  to  make  his 
way  unmolested  to  Ostia,  whence  he  took  boat  to 
Civita  Vecchia.  Next  day  Calixtus  III  died  ;  and 
the  Orsini  immediately  plundered  the  houses  of  all 
the  Borgia  and  their  detested  "  Catalans."  Don 
Pedro  Luis  did  not  long  survive  his  fall.  Six 
months  later  he  was  seized  with  fever,  and  died  at 
Civita  Vecchia,  when  all  his  wealth  went  to  swell 
the  already  abundant  resources  of  his  brother 
Rodrigo.  The  two  cardinal  nephews  seem  to  have 
been  unmolested ;  but  shortly  after  his  uncle's 
death  Cardinal  Luis  Juan  Borgia  retired  to  his 
distant  diocese  of  Lerida,  and  notwithstanding  the 
subsequent  rise  of  his  family  to  the  highest  pinnacle 
of  power  in  Italy  he  remained  there  quietly  until 
his  death  nearly  fifty  years  afterwards. 

In  August  1458  there  were  several  candidates 
for  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  but  a  first  scrutiny  at 
once  reduced  the  number  to  two,  the  wealthy 
Estouteville,  Cardinal-Archbishop  of  Rouen,  who 
looked  upon  his  election  as  a  certainty,  and  the 
subtle  and  brilliant  but  poor  and  powerless  Enea 
60 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

Silvio  Piccolomini,  Cardinal  of  Siena.  On  the 
second  scrutiny,  however,  it  appeared  that  Piccolo- 
mini  had  more  votes  than  Estouteville,  although 
not  the  minimum  majority  necessary  for  his 
election.  For  awhile  the  whole  conclave  sat  pale 
and  silent,  no  one  on  either  side  venturing  to  open 
his  mouth,  until  at  length  the  young  Vice-Chancellor 
Borgia  arose  and  said,  "  I  accede  to  the  Cardinal  of 
Siena."  His  example,  being  promptly  followed  by 
others,  not  only  placed  Piccolomini  on  the  Papal 
throne,  but  likewise  placed  Cardinal  Rodrigo  Borgia 
high  in  favour  with  the  new  Pontiff,  who  was 
forthwith  proclaimed  as  Pius  II. 

Little  is  known  of  the  public  life  of  Cardinal 
Rodrigo  Borgia  during  the  thirty-four  years  covered 
by  the  reigns  of  the  four  Popes  who  followed  his 
uncle  Calixtus  III ;  but  he  was  certainly  more  or 
less  in  favour  with  all  of  them,  for  he  not  only 
retained  the  numerous  lucrative  posts  and  benefices 
with  which  he  had  already  been  loaded,  but  added 
considerably  to  their  number.  In  1462  we  hear  of 
him  as  engaged  in  the  superintendence  of  the  fine 
buildings  with  which  Pius  II  was  adorning  his  native 
city  of  Siena ;  and  in  the  same  year  it  is  recorded 
that  he  gave  an  exhibition  of  his  wealth  and 
magnificence  by  outdoing  all  the  other  cardinals 
in  the  splendour  of  his  pageant  on  the  occasion 
of  the  Pope's  visit  to  Viterbo.  Pius  had  ordained 
a  grand  ceremonial  observance  of  Corpus  Christi 
Day  ;  and  each  cardinal  undertook  the  decoration 
of  part  of  the  road  to  the  cathedral.  One  cardinal 
gave  a  representation  of  the  Last  Supper  ;  another 

61 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

of  a  choir  of  angels  ;  another  of  a  dragon  surrounded 
by  demons,  whose  head  was  cut  off  by  the  descend- 
ing Archangel  Michael  at  the  moment  the  Pope 
passed  by.  But  Cardinal  Borgia's  pageant  eclipsed 
them  all.  He  had  erected  a  large  purple  tent 
across  the  road  leading  to  the  cathedral.  When 
the  Pope  approached,  two  angels  advanced  and 
knelt  in  reverence  to  the  Host,  which  was  carried 
by  his  Holiness ;  then,  turning  towards  the  tent, 
they  sang,  "  Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates,  that 
King  Pius,  lord  of  the  world,  may  come  in."  On 
this,  five  kings,  accompanied  by  a  band  of  armed 
men,  came  out  to  bar  his  entrance,  crying,  "  Who 
is  King  Pius  ?  "  Then  the  angels  shouted  in 
reply,  "  The  Lord  strong  and  mighty  !  "  whereupon 
the  curtain  fell,  and  the  kings  with  their  troops 
knelt  before  the  Pope,  singing  songs  to  his  honour 
to  the  accompaniment  of  a  band  of  musicians. 

When  Pius  II  died  two  years  later  at  Ancona, 
whither  he  had  gone  to  stir  up  enthusiasm  for 
his  crusade  against  the  Turk,  Cardinal  Rodrigo 
Borgia,  who  had  accompanied  the  Holy  Father, 
was  also  stricken  with  fever.  On  his  return  to 
Rome  he  appeared  in  the  Conclave  with  his  head 
bound  up  ;  and  on  account  of  his  indisposition  he 
was  unable  to  perform  the  ceremony  of  crowning 
Pietro  Barbo,  who  was  unanimously  elected  Pope 
on  August  30,  1464,  and  proclaimed  as  Paul  II. 
Cardinal  Borgia  appears  to  have  retained  the  favour 
of  Paul  II  throughout  the  seven  years  of  his  reign, 
but  his  name  does  not  come  into  prominence  until 
on  the  sudden  death  of  Paul  in  1471  he  was  able 
62 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

once  more  to  take  the  initiative  in  a  Papal  election. 
Bessarion,  the  Greek,  for  the  second  time  in  his 
life,  became  the  favourite  candidate,  his  age, 
which  was  verging  on  seventy,  rendering  him  all 
the  more  acceptable  as  being  likely  to  lead  to 
another  vacancy  within  a  short  time.  But  Rod- 
rigo  Borgia,  backed  by  the  Cardinals  Orsini  and 
Gonzaga,  set  up  a  competitor  in  the  person  of 
Francesco  della  Rovere,  a  man  of  low  birth  but 
high  character  and  great  learning ;  and  they 
succeeded  in  carrying  their  candidate,  who  was 
duly  crowned  on  August  25  in  the  name  of  Sixtus  IV. 
Delia  Rovere's  supporters,  of  course,  looked  for 
their  appropriate  rewards  ;  and  to  Rodrigo  Borgia's 
share  fell  the  rich  abbey  of  Subiaco.  The  Pope, 
following  in  the  footsteps  of  his  predecessors,  urged 
upon  Christendom  the  duty  of  a  united  war  against 
the  Turk,  for  which  purpose  Barbo  was  sent  as 
Legate  to  Germany,  Bessarion  to  France,  and 
Borgia  to  Spain.  None  of  them  met  with  any 
success  as  regards  the  special  object  of  their 
mission ;  but  Rodrigo  Borgia  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity to  display  himself  magnificently  in  his  native 
Valencia,  and  to  form  connections  with  the  Spanish 
court  which  were  afterwards  useful  to  him.  After 
an  absence  of  about  fifteen  months  he  made  his 
will  and  set  out  on  his  return  journey  to  Rome  on 
September  11,  1473.  Off  the  coast  of  Pisa  his 
galleys  encountered  a  fearful  storm  which  sank 
one  of  them.  Property  to  the  value  of  30,000 
florins  was  lost,  and  more  than  two  hundred  persons 
of  his  suite,  including  three  bishops,  were  drowned. 

63 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

The  galley  in  which  the  Cardinal  Legate  travelled 
only  narrowly  escaped  the  same  fate  ;  and  one 
may  perhaps  be  permitted  to  wonder  whether  it 
would  not  have  been  much  better  for  Italy  and 
the  Roman  Church  if  this  vessel  had  foundered 
instead  of  the  other.  During  the  following  ten 
years  little  is  recorded  of  Cardinal  Rodrigo,  except 
that  he  completed  the  building  of  his  huge  Palazzo 
Borgia,  which  soon  became  celebrated  as  one  of 
the  finest  palaces  in  Italy,  and  which  he  adorned 
with  sumptuous  furniture,  costly  tapestries  and 
carpets,  with  marvels  of  artistic  workmanship  in 
gold,  silver  and  bronze,  with  fine  specimens  of 
antique  statuary,  superb  armour,  gorgeous  plate, 
fine  books,  and  in  fact  with  every  splendid  luxury 
within  the  reach  of  the  wealthiest  prince  of  ths 
time. 

On  the  death  of  Sixtus  IV  in  1484  Cardinal 
Rodrigo  Borgia,  then  fifty-three  years  of  age, 
Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Church,  and  possessed  of 
enormous  wealth  from  the  revenues  of  his  numerous 
benefices,  thought  himself  so  secure  of  election 
that  he  had  his  palace  barricaded  to  prevent  that 
pillage  by  the  mob  which  always  took  place  on 
such  occasions.  But  he  had  miscalculated  the 
strength  of  his  support ;  and  after  the  first  scrutiny 
he  and  his  bitter  rival,  Cardinal  Juliano  della 
Rovere,  united  their  forces  in  order  to  prevent  the 
election  of  the  Venetian  cardinal,  Barbo,  and  to 
secure  that  of  the  Genoese  cardinal,  Cibo,  who  on 
August  29  was  proclaimed  as  Innocent  VIII. 
During  the  eight  years  of  Innocent's  pontificate 
64 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

Cardinal  Rodrigo  Borgia  seems  to  have  occupied 
himself  mainly  in  husbanding  his  wealth  and  con- 
solidating his  friendships  in  preparation  for  the 
next  struggle. 

Of  Rodrigo  Borgia's  private  life  during  the 
period  of  his  cardinalate  the  details,  though  meagre, 
are  illuminating.  Our  first  glimpse  of  it  is  afforded 
by  an  admonitory  letter  in  which  his  friend  Pius  II 
reproved  him  for  dissolute  conduct  in  Siena  in  the 
summer  of  1460.  Pius  had  learned  that  Borgia,  in 
company  with  another  ecclesiastic,  had  spent  five 
hours  at  a  bacchanalian  orgy  in  a  certain  private 
garden  in  Siena  to  which  had  been  invited  a  number 
of  ladies  of  questionable  character.  Shame  forbids 
mention  of  all  that  took  place,  says  the  Pope,  but 
he  mentions  that  wanton  dancing  was  a  prominent 
feature  of  the  entertainment,  that  no  amorous, 
allurements  were  lacking,  and  that  the  husbands, 
fathers,  brothers  and  other  kinsmen  of  the  young 
women  and  girls  were  not  invited  to  be  present 
in  order  that  there  might  be  no  restraint.  Such 
conduct  displeased  the  Pope  beyond  words ;  and 
Borgia  was  not  only  admonished  to  remember  that 
as  bishop  of  the  premier  see  in  Spain,  as  cardinal, 
and  as  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Church,  it  behoved 
him  to  be  above  reproach  and  exhibit  an  example 
of  right  living  in  the  sight  of  all  men  ;  but  he  was 
also  informed  pretty  plainly  that  should  such  a 
scandalous  exhibition  occur  again  he  would  have 
to  be  rebuked  in  a  more  open  and  peremptory 
manner.  However  indisposed  the  libidinous  cardinal 
may  have  been  to  curb  his  insatiable  sensuality,  we 

E  65 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

may  assume,  in  the  absence  of  any  evidence  to  the 
contrary,  that  he  gave  no  further  public  and 
ostentatious  examples  of  it  at  any  rate  during  the 
lifetime  of  Pius  II.  But  everybody  knew  that 
Cardinal  Rodrigo  Borgia  thought  little  of  his 
priestly  vow  of  chastity.  A  contemporary  historian, 
Gasparino  of  Verona,  describes  him  as  "  a  handsome 
man,  with  a  pleasant  look  and  a  honeyed  tongue, 
who  lures  women  to  love  him,  and  attracts  those 
on  whom  he  casts  his  eyes  more  powerfully  than 
the  magnet  draws  iron."  At  least  half  a  dozen  of 
his  children  were  openly  acknowledged  as  such. 
Of  his  eldest  son,  Pedro  Luis,  born  of  an  unknown 
mother  about  1460,  little  more  is  known  than  that 
after  being  educated  as  befitted  the  son  of  a  prince, 
his  father's  wealth  and  influence  in  Spain  procured 
for  him  the  dukedom  of  Gandia  ;  that  the  young 
Duke  distinguished  himself  as  a  soldier  in  the  war 
against  the  Moors  in  Granada ;  and  that  when  he 
died,  at  the  age  of  thirty  or  thereabout,  he  was 
betrothed  to  a  princess  of  the  royal  House  of 
Aragon.  Even  more  meagre  is  our  information 
concerning  a  daughter,  named  Girolama,  who  was 
born,  either  of  the  same  or  of  another  unknown 
mother,  in  1467,  and  who  at  the  age  of  fifteen  was 
married  to  Don  Giovandrea  Cesarini,  a  scion  of  one 
of  the  baronial  houses  of  Rome.  And  there  was 
another  daughter,  named  Isabella,  who  was  married 
in  1483  to  a  Roman  noble  named  Mattuzi. 

But  in  addition  to  these  children,  Cardinal 
Rodrigo  Borgia  had  four  others  who  were  all  the 
offspring  of  a  Roman  lady  named  Vanozza  de 
66 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

Catanei ;  namely,  Giovanni,  born  in  1474  ;  Cesare, 
born  in  1475  or  1476  ;  Lucrezia,  who  was  born 
(most  probably)  in  1480;  and  Giuffre,  who  was 
born  in  1481.  Who  and  what  manner  of  woman 
Vanozza  de  Catanei  was  is  almost  entirely  a  matter 
of  conjecture.  No  authentic  portrait  of  her  exists, 
nor  has  her  appearance  been  described  by  any  of 
her  contemporaries.  We  may  confidently  assume 
that  she  was  of  more  than  ordinary  beauty,  or  she 
would  not  have  attracted  Rodrigo  Borgia.  We 
may  also  confidently  assume,  with  Gregorovius, 
that  although  perhaps  of  no  great  culture,  she 
must  have  been  a  woman  of  some  intellectual  as 
well  as  physical  vigour,  or  she  would  not  have 
retained  the  Cardinal's  affection  so  long  as  she 
did.  At  what  date  the  connection  began  is  also 
a  matter  of  conjecture.  Some  historians  have 
endeavoured  to  fix  it  at  about  the  year  1460;  but 
a  consideration  of  all  the  evidence  available  seems 
to  render  it  much  more  probable  that  the  liaison 
did  not  begin  before  1473,  after  Cardinal  Rodrigo 
Borgia's  return  from  his  legation  to  Spain,  when 
he  was  forty-two  years  of  age  and  Vanozza  thirty- 
one.  In  1480  we  hear  of  her  as  living  in  a  house 
on  the  Piazza,  Branca,  not  far  from  the  Borgia 
palace,  and  known  as  the  wife  of  Giorgio  Croce,  a 
Milanese  for  whom  Cardinal  Rodrigo  had  obtained 
a  post  as  Apostolic  secretary.  There  appears  to 
have  been  little  secrecy  concerning  Borgia's  rela- 
tions with  her,  and  her  four  children  already 
mentioned  were  openly  acknowledged,  brought 
up,  and  educated  as  the  Cardinal's  own.  When, 

67 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

however,  Vanozza's  husband,  Giorgio  di  Croce,  died 
early  in  1486,  the  Cardinal's  ardour  seems  to  have 
cooled ;  for,  having  already  provided  her  with 
ample  means  of  subsistence,  he  married  her  off  in 
June  of  the  same  year  to  a  Mantuan  named  Carlo 
Canale  ;  and  then,  after  the  manner  of  his  kind, 
entered  into  more  intimate  relations  with  younger 
women. 

What  influence  Vanozza  was  allowed  to  have  in 
the  rearing  and  education  of  her  children  does  not 
appear.  They  all  evidently  remained  on  very  good 
terms  with  her  to  the  end  of  their  lives  ;  and  the 
inscription  on  her  tombstone  shows  that  she  was 
proud  of  her  distinguished  progeny.  But  Lucrezia 
at  least  was  removed  from  her  care  in  early  child- 
hood, and  brought  up  under  the  tuition  of  Cardinal 
Rodrigo's  cousin,  Adriana  da  Mila,  widow  of 
Ludovico  Orsini,  who  lived  with  her  only  son, 
Orsino  Orsini,  a  boy  some  seven  years  older  than 
Lucretia,  in  the  Orsini  palace  on  Monte  Giordano. 
The  kind  of  woman  Madonna  Adriana  was,  and  the 
pernicious  influence  she  was  likely  to  exercise  on 
the  character  of  the  young  girl  committed  to  her 
charge,  may  be  judged  of  from  her  conduct  in 
another  matter.  Her  son  Orsino  had  been  be- 
trothed before  the  death  of  his  father  to  Giulia 
Farnese,  youngest  daughter  of  Pierluigi  Farnese, 
who  also,  like  the  boy's  father,  had  since  died. 
On  May  21,  1489,  when  Giulia  was  barely  fifteen, 
and  Orsino  probably  not  more  than  a  year  older, 
the  young  couple  were  duly  married  in  the  Palazzo 
Borgia,  amidst  great  splendour  and  rejoicing. 
68 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

Young  girls  develop  early  under  Italian  skies,  and 
the  golden- haired  Giulia,  probably  at  that  time  in 
the  full  bloom  of  her  marvellous  beauty,  aroused 
the  passions  of  Cardinal  Borgia,  who,  though  close 
upon  sixty  years  of  age,  brought  into  play  those 
fascinating  manners  and  seductive  arts  for  which 
he  was  so  famous,  with  the  result  that  Giulia  soon 
became  his  acknowledged  mistress.  Of  course  this 
could  never  have  happened  but  for  the  concurrence 
and  connivance  of  Madonna  Adriana,  whose  assist- 
ance in  this  and  other  equally  shameful  proceedings 
of  her  powerful  kinsman  made  her  his  intimate 
confidant,  and  consequently  one  of  the  most 
influential  women  in  Rome. 

Venozza's  three  sons  were  brought  up  and 
educated  as  the  sons  of  a  prince.  When  Pedro 
Luis  Borgia  died,  about  the  year  1488,  his  duchy 
of  Gandia  devolved  upon  Vanozza's  eldest  son 
Giovanni,  then  a  lad  of  fourteen,  who  was  promptly 
sent  off  to  Spain  to  take  possession  of  his  inheritance. 
Cesare,  her  second  son,  was  intended  by  his  father 
for  an  ecclesiastical  career.  In  1480,  when  the 
child  was  four  or  five  years  of  age,  his  father 
obtained  for  him  from  Sixtus  IV  a  dispensation 
relieving  him  from  the  necessity  of  proving  his 
legitimacy,  a  relief  which  was  necessary  in  order  to 
make  him  eligible  for  the  ecclesiastical  benefices 
which  it  was  the  Cardinal's  intention  to  procure 
for  him.  Two  years  later  his  father  was  made 
administrator  of  all  the  benefices  which  should  be 
conferred  on  the  said  Cesare  Borgia  until  he 
reached  the  age  of  fourteen.  Shortly  after  that 

69 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Cardinal  Rodrigo  was  able  to  make  his  son  a  canon 
of  Valencia.  In  1484,  when  the  boy  was  eight  or 
nine,  he  received  also  the  post  of  treasurer  of  the 
cathedral  of  Cartagena.  In  1488  or  thereabouts  he 
was  sent  to  the  University  of  Perugia,  where,  if 
we  may  believe  the  laudations  of  Paolo  Pompilio, 
the  maturity  of  his  intellect  and  his  rapid  progress 
in  learning  astonished  everybody.  A  few  years 
later  he  was  transferred  to  the  University  of  Pisa, 
where  he  lived  in  princely  style,  and  amongst 
other  advantages  was  brought  into  friendly  rela- 
tions with  some  of  the  Medici.  The  youngest  son, 
Giuffre,  was  also  apparently  intended  for  the 
Church,  although  eventually  his  father  made  a 
Neapolitan  prince  of  him  instead.  When  he  was 
about  ten  years  of  age  we  hear  of  his  being  made 
canon  and  archdeacon  of  Valencia.  Spain  was 
naturally  Cardinal  Borgia's  happy  hunting-ground  ; 
and  in  February  of  this  same  year  1491  a  contract 
of  betrothal  was  entered  into  on  behalf  of  his 
daughter  Lucrezia,  then  barely  eleven  years  of  age, 
and  Don  Cherubino  Juan  de  Centelles,  a  youthful 
brother  of  the  Count  of  Oliva.  Before  the  year 
was  out,  however,  some  unknown  change  had  taken 
place  in  the  plans  of  Lucrezia's  father,  for  the 
betrothal  to  Don  Cherubino  was  annulled  and 
another  betrothal  made  instead  to  Don  Gasparo, 
son  of  the  Count  of  Aversa,  a  boy  of  fifteen  then 
being  educated  in  Valencia.  This  contract  like- 
wise was  annulled  in  its  turn  ;  for  although  the 
marriage  of  a  Cardinal's  bastard  into  the  old  and 
proud  nobility  of  Spain  was  as  brilliant  a  match 
70 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

as  even  her  rich  and  haughty  father  could  then 
have  aspired  to,  but  a  few  months  later  Rodrigo 
Borgia  ascended  the  Papal  throne,  and  then,  of 
course,  he  immediately  began  to  cast  about  for  a 
more  splendid  as  well  as  a  more  politically  useful 
alliance. 

On  July  25,  1492,  died  Innocent  VIII,  after  an 
inglorious  reign  of  seven  years.  There  were  several 
candidates  for  the  Papacy,  notably  Ascanio  Sforza, 
Lorenzo  Cibo,  Rafael  Riario,  Rodrigo  Borgia  and 
Giuliano  della  Rovere ;  but  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  the  contest  lay  between  Borgia  and 
Rovere.  The  election  of  Rovere  was  ardently 
desired  by  Charles  VIII  of  France,  who  lodged 
200,000  ducats  in  a  Roman  bank  to  further  his 
protege's  candidature.  But  Ascanio  Sforza,  who 
was  bitterly  opposed  to  Giuliano  della  Rovere, 
sank  his  own  pretensions  and  worked  hard  for  the 
election  of  Rodrigo  Borgia.  Both  candidates  openly 
and  shamelessly  promised  benefices  and  money  in 
return  for  votes  ;  and  in  this  traffic,  Borgia,  who 
was  by  far  the  richest  cardinal  in  the  Church, 
eventually  carried  the  day.  To  Cardinal  Colonna 
he  promised  the  rich  abbacy  of  Subiaco,  with  all 
its  surrounding  villages,  in  perpetuity  ;  to  Cardinal 
Orsini,  the  two  fortified  towns  of  Monticelli  and 
Soriano,  together  with  the  Legation  of  the  Marches 
and  the  bishopric  of  Cartagena ;  to  Cardinal 
Savelli,  the  town  of  Civita  Castellana  and  the 
bishopric  of  Majorca ;  to  Cardinal  Pallavicini,  the 
bishopric  of  Pamplona ;  to  Cardinal  Michiel,  the 
suburban  bishopric  of  Porta,  with  the  tower  and 

71 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

furniture  thereof,  including  amongst  other  desirable 
things  a  cellar  full  of  good  wine  ;  Cardinals  Sola- 
fenati,  Sanseverino,  Riario  Rovere  and  Domenico 
Rovere  each  received  several  valuable  benefices  ; 
the  Patriarch  of  Venice,  Fra  Gheraldo,  a  man 
ninety-five  years  of  age,  who  had  but  just  been 
made  cardinal,  was  given  5000  golden  ducats  in 
cash ;  whilst  to  Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza  were 
promised  the  bishopric  of  Erlau,  which  had  a 
revenue  of  10,000  ducats,  the  castle  of  Nepi,  the 
princely  Palazzo  Borgia,  and  the  high  and  lucrative 
office  of  Vice-Chancellor.  Moreover,  shortly  before 
entering  the  Conclave,  Cardinal  Borgia  sent  round 
to  Cardinal  Sforza's  palace  four  mules  laden  with 
silver  plate,  ostensibly  for  safe  keeping  until  the 
usual  pillage  was  over,  but,  as  was  generally 
believed,  with  the  private  understanding  that  it 
need  not  be  returned  in  the  event  of  Borgia's 
election.  Some  apologists  have  recently  ventured 
to  deny  the  simoniacal  character  of  Alexander  VTs 
election ;  but  the  evidence  of  it  is  overwhelming. 

Late  in  the  night  of  August  10,  or  rather  in  the 
early  hours  of  the  following  morning,  Rodrigo 
Borgia  heard  his  election  announced.  Unable  to 
express  his  elation,  he  is  reported  to  have  exclaimed 
jubilantly,  "  Am  I,  then,  Pope  and  Vicar  of  Christ  ?  " 
whereupon  Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza,  who  had  been 
mainly  instrumental  in  securing  that  result  in 
return  for  the  emoluments  already  enumerated, 
expressed  his  conviction  that  the  election  had  been 
the  work  of  God,  who  had  chosen  the  worthiest  of 
his  brethren  to  fill  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  The 
72 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BORGIA 

newly  elected  Pope  replied  that  he  was  conscious 
of  his  own  weakness  and  unworthiness,  but  that 
he  hoped  for  the  same  divine  assistance  as  had 
been  given  to  the  Apostle,  and  that  he  was  unfeign- 
edly  desirous  of  following  the  dictates  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Notwithstanding  such  expressions  of 
humility,  however,  it  was  noticed  that  he  made 
unusual  haste  to  don  his  pontifical  vestments,  and 
that  he  instructed  the  Master  of  the  Ceremonies 
to  write  his  name  on  small  slips  of  paper  and  throw 
these  from  the  window  in  order  that  his  elevation 
might  be  made  known  as  soon  as  possible  to  the 
waiting  crowd  outside.  The  mob,  of  course,  first 
rushed  off  to  pillage  the  palace  of  the  new  Pope, 
and  then  swarmed  back  to  St.  Peter's  to  receive 
his  blessing.  Many  thought  that  he  would  take 
the  name  of  Calixtus,  out  of  compliment  to  the 
uncle  to  whose  favour  all  his  wealth  and  greatness 
were  due.  But  when  this  suggestion  was  made  he 
answered  haughtily,  "  We  desire  to  be  known  by 
the  name  of  the  invincible  Alexander." 


78 


Ill 

THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

ALTHOUGH  the  Papal  throne  had  been  put  up  to 
auction  and  sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  the  election 
of  Rodrigo  Borgia,  though  not  generally  expected, 
seems  to  have  been  generally  acceptable,  both  at 
home  and  abroad.  If  Ferrante  of  Naples  really 
shed  the  tears  which  Giucciardini  reports,  and  if 
the  youthful  Cardinal  de'  Medici  really  whispered 
to  Cardinal  Cibo  that  they  were  in  the  jaws  of  a 
wolf  and  would  have  to  flee  or  be  devoured,  those 
two  notabilities  were  either  exceptionally  sagacious 
or,  as  is  more  probable,  exceptionally  apprehensive 
for  personal  reasons  of  their  own.  The  new  Pope, 
who  was  sixty  years  of  age,  had  as  yet  shown 
nothing  of  those  dark  traits  in  his  character  which 
were  to  beget  the  loathing  of  his  contemporaries 
and  make  his  name  a  byword  for  infamy  to  suc- 
ceeding generations.  He  was  generally  admitted 
to  be  the  most  capable  as  well  as  the  most  ex- 
perienced member  of  the  Sacred  College.  One 
contemporary  describes  him  as  an  accomplished 
man  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  business ; 
another  speaks  of  his  aptitude  for  finance ;  yet 
another  of  his  robust  body,  vigorous  mind,  dignified 
manners,  and  acquaintance  with  court  ceremonies. 
74 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

He  is  described  as  tall,  powerfully  built,  with  an 
imposing  presence,  and  dark,  lively,  penetrating 
eyes  ;  as  eloquent  in  speech,  fascinating  in  manner, 
and  endowed  with  a  degree  of  bodily  health  capable 
of  enduring  endless  fatigue  ;  in  fact,  as  possessing 
in  an  eminent  degree  all  the  qualities  necessary  for 
a  distinguished  temporal  ruler,  which  seems  to 
have  been  all  that  was  then  looked  for  in  the  head 
of  the  Church.  Most  of  the  Italian  States  sent 
dutiful,  and  apparently  genuine,  expressions  of 
their  loyalty  to  the  Holy  Father.  Venice,  it  is 
true,  made  no  secret  of  her  displeasure ;  but  on 
the  other  hand  Florence  rejoiced  with  the  ringing 
of  bells,  and  in  Milan  the  gratification  of  Ludovico 
Sforza  was  shown  by  public  festivities  and  illumina- 
tions. The  Romans  exhibited  every  sign  of  pleasure 
and  approbation.  On  the  night  of  Alexander's 
elevation  the  magistrates  of  the  city  rode  in  pro- 
cession by  torchlight  to  the  Vatican  to  do  him 
homage;  and  a  fortnight  later  the  cardinals  and 
nobles,  little  dreaming  how  soon  so  many  of  them 
were  to  fall  victims  to  the  rapacity  of  their  new 
Pontiff,  vied  with  one  another  in  the  splendour  of 
their  dresses  and  decorations  on  the  day  of  his 
coronation.  Triumphal  arches  and  altars  and 
statues  and  pictures  decorated  the  streets.  The 
most  extravagant  adulation  was  expressed  by 
allegorical  devices  and  processions,  by  addresses 
and  inscriptions,  and  by  ingenious  mythological 
applications  of  the  bull  of  the  Borgian  arms.  The 
populace  enthusiastically  acclaimed  the  elevation 
of  the  most  princely  of  the  cardinals,  whose 

75 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

appearance  and  demeanour  gave  promise  of  a 
more  than  ordinarily  splendid  reign.  And  the 
humanistic  writers  of  the  time  joined  in  the  general 
chorus  of  praise  and  flattery.  One  of  these,  after 
enumerating  the  seven  hundred  priests  and  car- 
dinals with  their  retinues,  the  dazzling  cavalcades 
of  knights  and  nobles,  the  troops  of  archers  and 
horsemen,  the  Papal  guards  with  long  lances  and 
glittering  shields,  the  twelve  riderless  horses  with 
golden  bridles,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  pomp  and 
parade  which  filled  the  streets  of  Rome  when 
Alexander  made  his  ceremonial  passage  to  the 
Lateran,  breaks  out  into  almost  lyrical  rapture 
when  he  comes  to  describe  the  Pope  himself.  The 
majestic  Borgia,  we  are  told,  seated  upon  a  milk- 
white  horse,  rode  along,  serene  of  countenance 
and  of  surpassing  dignity,  bestowing  his  blessing 
upon  the  crowd,  and  filling  every  heart  with  joy. 
And  not  only  were  the  mild  composure  of  his 
mien,  the  frankness  of  his  glance,  the  nobleness  of 
his  face,  regarded  as  of  good  augury,  but  the  beauty 
and  vigorous  health  of  his  body  also,  we  are  assured, 
enhanced  the  reverence  which  he  inspired.  In 
similar  strain,  another  contemporary  historian, 
Gasparino  of  Verona,  declares  that  not  only  Alex- 
ander's broad  forehead  and  majestic  countenance, 
but  the  heroic  beauty  of  his  whole  body  also 
was  given  him  by  nature  in  order  that  he  might 
"  adorn  the  seat  of  the  Apostles  with  his  divine 
form  in  place  of  God."  It  is  highly  significant  of 
the  morality  of  the  period  that  no  mention  was 
made  by  anybody  of  the  well- enough-known  irregu- 
76 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

larities  of  Rodrigo  Borgia's  private  life  ;  although, 
curiously  enough,  a  good  deal  of  indignation  soon 
manifested  itself  concerning  the  bribery  by  means 
of  which  he  had  won  his  election. 

In  the  early  months  of  his  Pontificate,  Alexander 
showed  himself  a  vigorous  and  capable  ruler. 
There  was  indeed  need  of  a  strong  hand ;  for 
during  the  month  which  had  elapsed  between 
Innocent's  death  and  his  successor's  coronation  no 
less  than  220  assassinations  had  been  perpetrated 
in  the  streets  of  Rome.  Besides  putting  an  end  to 
this  sort  of  thing  by  exemplary  severity,  the  new 
Pope  also  recommended  himself  by  more  regular 
payment  of  official  salaries,  by  moderating  the 
prices  of  food  in  the  markets,  and  by  various  other 
ordinances  making  for  the  quiet  and  contentment 
of  his  people.  He  had  promised  to  effect  reforms 
in  the  Curia,  to  get  rid  of  certain  tyrannical 
officials,  to  make  none  but  worthy  appointments, 
and  to  keep  his  sons  far  away  from  Rome ;  thus 
creating  a  very  good  impression,  and  justifying 
the  Ferrarese  ambassador's  report  to  his  master 
that  Alexander  was  generally  expected  to  prove 
"  a  glorious  Pontiff."  But  all  the  Pope's  good 
intentions,  if  good  intentions  he  really  did  entertain 
at  this  time,  came  to  speedy  shipwreck  through  his 
ardent  desire  to  aggrandise  his  own  kith  and  kin. 
On  the  day  of  his  coronation  he  conferred  on  his 
son  Cesare  the  archbishopric  of  Valencia,  one  of 
the  most  considerable  of  the  benefices  which  he  had 
enjoyed  during  his  own  cardinalate.  A  few  days 
later,  his  nephew  Giovanni,  son  of  his  sister  Juana 

77 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

de  Lan9ol,  received  a  cardinal's  hat.  Shortly  after- 
wards another  nephew  became  the  Pope's  equerry, 
while  a  third  was  made  captain  of  the  palace 
guard.  As  early  as  November  the  Ferrarese 
ambassador  who  three  months  previously  had 
prognosticated  a  model  Papacy  was  constrained 
to  write  home  saying  that  "  ten  Papacies  would 
never  suffice  to  satisfy  such  a  swarm  of  relations." 
And  this  was  merely  a  beginning  ;  for  in  the  course 
of  his  reign  Alexander  promoted  more  than  thirty 
persons  bearing  his  name  to  spiritual  or  secular 
appointments  in  the  service  of  the  Holy  See. 

Family  alliances  which  had  seemed  advantageous 
enough  for  the  children  of  the  Cardinal  no  longer 
satisfied  the  ambition  of  the  Pope,  who  promptly 
annulled  the  contract  of  marriage  between  his 
daughter  Lucrezia  and  Don  Caspar  da  Procida. 
While  he  was  casting  about  for  some  suitor  of 
higher  degree,  Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza,  whose 
influence  with  a  Pope  of  his  own  making  was 
naturally  very  great,  brought  forward  a  kinsman 
of  his  own  in  the  person  of  Giovanni  Sforza,  Lord 
of  Pesaro.  Giovanni  himself,  a  young  widower, 
some  six-and-twenty  years  of  age,  was  eager  enough 
for  the  alliance  because,  apart  from  questions  of 
dowry  and  other  advantages,  he  being  an  illegiti- 
mate son  and  only  recognised  as  his  father's  heir 
by  the  indulgence  of  the  two  previous  Popes,  it 
would  render  his  position  as  a  Romagnian  despot 
more  secure.  Cardinal  Ascanio  desired  it  because, 
great  as  his  influence  in  the  Vatican  was  at  the 
moment,  he  had  had  experience  enough  to  know 
78 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

that  it  might  require  buttresses  in  the  future, 
Ludovico  Sforza  desired  it  because  it  was  of  the 
greatest  importance  to  him  to  have  the  Pope  on 
his  side  in  the  struggle  for  his  usurped  duchy  which 
he  was  carrying  on  with  Naples  ;  and  Alexander 
on  his  part  was  equally  desirous  of  a  family  connec- 
tion with  the  powerful  ruler  of  Milan.  A  betrothal 
was  duly  made  accordingly ;  nobody,  of  course, 
thinking  it  at  all  necessary  to  consider  the  inclina- 
tions of  the  young  lady  herself. 

Shortly  before  this,  Ferrante  of  Aragon  had  sent 
his  second  son,  Federigo,  to  Rome,  to  profess  his 
obedience  and  to  persuade  the  Pope  to  an  alliance 
with  Naples.  But  although  Ferrante's  proposals 
had  been  warmly  supported  by  Cardinal  Giuliano 
della  Rovere  and  several  other  cardinals,  Federigo 
returned  home  without  any  success.  The  Pope  had 
been  aggrieved  by  Virginio  Orsini's  purchase  of 
Cervetri  and  Anguillara  from  Franceschetto  Cibo, 
with  money  advanced,  as  was  generally  suspected, 
by  King  Ferrante  ;  and  when  Virginio,  who  was 
commander-in-chief  of  the  Neapolitan  army,  occu- 
pied these  cities  with  his  troops,  Alexander  naturally 
enough  became  still  more  uneasy.  His  anger 
against  Cardinal  Giuliano  della  Rovere,  who  had 
favoured  this  arrangement^was  so  manifest  that 
towards  the  end  of  1492  the  Cardinal,  feeling  him- 
self unsafe  in  Rome,  retired  to  his  impregnable 
fortress  of  Ostia.  Ferrante  was  now  greatly  dis- 
turbed at  the  prospect  of  a  family  alliance  between 
the  Houses  of  Borgia  and  Sforza.  He  sent  Federigo 
once  more  to  Rome  ;  and  even  listened  favourably 

79 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

to  a  proposal  that  he  should  give  his  daughter  in 
marriage  to  the  Pope's  son  Giuffre.  But  the 
negotiations  came  to  nothing.  The  Sforza  interest 
was  for  the  moment  all-powerful  at  the  Vatican  ; 
and  on  April  25,  1493,  a  league  was  announced 
between  the  Pope,  Ludovico  Sforza,  Venice, 
Ferrara,  and  Mantua,  one  of  the  first  results  of 
which  was  the  despatch  of  troops  by  both  Milan 
and  Venice  to  aid  the  Pope  in  driving  Virginio 
Orsini  out  of  Cervetri  and  Anguillara.  The  King 
of  Naples  thereupon  complained  to  the  court  of 
Spain  that  the  Pope  was  stirring  up  strife  in  Italy. 
It  was  certainly  a  case  of  the  pot  calling  the  kettle 
black ;  but  this  cruel  and  crafty  old  monarch  was 
a  profound  student  of  human  nature  as  well  as  the 
most  experienced  statesman  then  living  ;  and  even 
at  this  early  date  he  had  accurately  gauged  the 
Pope's  character  and  divined  the  one  object  of 
his  policy.  Alexander  led  so  scandalous  a  life,  he 
declared,  that  every  one  turned  from  him  with 
horror.  He  had  seized  upon  the  sale  of  Cervetri 
and  Anguillara  as  a  pretext  to  ruin  both  the 
Orsini  and  the  Colonna  and  to  begin  a  quarrel  with 
Naples.  He  had  forced  Cardinal  Giuliano  della 
Rovere  to  flee  from  Rome.  He  was  certainly 
intriguing  with  France,  and  probably  even  with 
the  Turks.  All  his  thoughts  and  all  his  actions 
were  directed  to  the  aggrandisement  of  his  children, 
which  he  was  determined  to  accomplish  whether 
by  fair  means  or  by  foul.  As  will  appear  presently, 
these  representations  were  not  without  their  effect. 
Lucrezia,  who  had  but  just  completed  her 
80 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

thirteenth  year,  already  had  a  palace  of  her  own, 
in  close  proximity  to  the  Vatican,  where,  under 
the  guidance  of  her  father's  cousin  Madonna 
Adriana,  she  maintained  the  state  of  a  royal 
princess.  On  June  9, 1493,  her  betrothed,  Giovanni 
Sforza,  arrived  in  Rome  and  was  received  with  due 
ceremony  by  the  Senate,  the  foreign  ambassadors, 
and  other  notabilities.  Three  days  later  the  nuptials 
were  celebrated  in  the  Vatican,  with  great  splendour, 
in  the  presence  of  the  Pope,  many  cardinals  and 
bishops,  the  ambassadors  of  France,  Milan,  Venice 
and  Ferrara,  the  Roman  magistrates,  and  a  brilliant 
company  of  fifty  noble  matrons  with  their  spouses. 
At  the  select  dinner  which  followed  Alexander  VI 
and  several  of  his  cardinals  sat  down  to  table  with 
a  number  of  ladies,  amongst  whom  was  the  beautiful 
Giulia  Farnese-Orsini,  concerning  whose  irregular 
relations  with  his  Holiness  people  had  already 
begun  to  talk,  and  who  is  roundly  termed  by 
Infessura  the  Pope's  concubine.  After  the  table 
was  cleared  many  wedding  gifts  were  formally 
presented  to  the  bride,  including  diamond  and 
ruby  rings,  drinking  services  of  silver-gilt,  gold 
brocade,  and  other  articles  of  considerable 
value.  Then  followed  the  performance  of  a  lively 
(not  to  say  indecent)  comedy,  music,  singing 
and  dancing,  the  Pope  and  his  guests  spending 
the  whole  night  in  this  revelry,  "  whether  well 
or  ill,"  wrote  the  Ferrarese  ambassador  to  his 
master  next  morning,  "  I  leave  your  Highness  to 
determine." 

Immediately  after  this  the  Spanish  ambassador 

F  81 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

arrived  in  Rome,  to  tender  the  obedience  of  his 
master,  but  also  to  warn  the  Pope  that  Ferdinand 
the  Catholic  looked  upon  the  interests  of  Naples 
and  the  House  of  Aragon  as  his  own.  At  the  same 
time  Ferrante  redoubled  his  efforts  to  arrive  at  an 
understanding  with  Alexander  and  to  detach  him 
from  the  Milan- Venice  league  before  the  arrival 
of  the  ambassador  of  France,  who,  it  was  presumed, 
would  make  tempting  offers  to  secure  his  master's 
investiture  of  the  crown  of  Naples.  In  conjunction 
Naples  and  Spain  employed  a  bait  which,  according 
to  Ferrante's  astute  divination,  it  was  not  in  the 
nature  of  Alexander  to  resist.  They  proposed  that 
Sancia,  natural  daughter  of  Alfonso  of  Calabria, 
should  be  given  in  marriage  to  the  Pope's  youngest 
son,  Giuffre,  bringing  to  him  as  dowry  the  princi- 
pality of  Squillace  ;  and  that  the  Pope's  eldest 
son,  Giovanni,  second  Duke  of  Gandia,  should 
marry  the  Princess  Maria,  niece  of  King  Ferdinand, 
to  whom  his  deceased  brother  had  been  betrothed. 
They  also  used  their  good  offices  to  bring  about  a 
satisfactory  arrangement  with  Virginio  Orsini, 
whereby  Virginio  agreed  to  pay  the  Pope  35,000 
ducats  and  receive  in  return  the  investiture  of  the 
fiefs  of  Cervetri  and  Anguillara,  which  he  already 
held  by  force  of  arms.  A  reconciliation  was  like- 
wise patched  up  between  Alexander  and  Giuliano 
de  la  Rovere,  so  that  on  July  24  both  that  cardinal 
and  Virginio  Orsini  came  to  Rome  and  dined 
amicably  with  the  Pope.  The  engagement  of  Don 
Giuffre  was  to  be  kept  secret  until  Christmas  ;  but 
on  August  2  the  Duke  of  Gandia  set  out  for 
82 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

Barcelona  with  a  splendid  retinue,  where  he  was 
received  with  princely  honours,  and  duly  united 
to  his^  royal  bride.  A  few  days  later  the  French 
ambassador  arrived  in  Rome  to  demand  the  investi- 
ture of  Naples  for  his  master  ;  but  he  was  answered 
in  very  ambiguous  terms  ;  and  some  people  thought 
from  Alexander's  shifting  policy  that  he  had  lost 
his  head.  The  Milanese  ambassador,  however,  was 
of  a  contrary  opinion,  having  evidently  come  to 
the  same  conclusion  as  King  Ferrante  regarding 
the  Pope's  real  aim.  The  man,  he  said,  who  had 
negotiated  a  treaty  that  made  King  Ferrante  groan 
and  yet  brought  him  to  consent  to  a  family  alliance, 
who  had  married  one  of  his  sons  to  a  princess  of 
Spain,  who  had  married  his  daughter  to  a  prince 
of  the  House  of  Sforza,  and  who  had  forced  the 
powerful  Virginio  Orsini  to  pay  for  his  fiefs  and 
submit  to  the  Church,  was  a  man  who  evidently 
knew  what  he  wanted  and  also  how  to  accomplish 
his  ends. 

In  September  of  this  year  the  Pope  created 
twelve  new  cardinals.  At  a  later  date  it  was 
Alexander's  policy  to  fill  the  Sacred  College  with 
Spaniards  who  were  devoted  to  his  interests.  In 
this  instance,  although  he  secured  for  himself  a 
majority  which  shattered  the  opposition,  the  new 
creations  were  considerately  selected  from  various 
nationalities,  and  most  of  them  were  admittedly 
able  and  worthy  men.  Three  of  the  appointments, 
however,  were  altogether  indefensible.  Ippolito 
d'Este,  son  of  Duke  Ercole  of  Ferrara,  was  a  mere 
child  of  fifteen,  remarkable  at  that  time  only  for 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

his  exceptional  personal  beauty,  but  afterwards 
equally  remarkable  for  his  extravagance  and  disso- 
luteness. Cesare  Borgia  received  the  red  hat  partly 
because  it  was  the  darling  aim  of  Alexander  to 
advance  his  children  by  every  means  at  his  dis- 
posal, and  partly  because  a  son  at  his  right  hand 
in  the  Sacred  College  would  greatly  increase  the 
Pope's  power.  Alessandro  Farnese,  a  young  man 
of  five-and-twenty,  cultured  and  intellectual,  but 
equally  dissolute  and  vicious,  owed  his  elevation 
solely  to  the  circumstance  that  his  beautiful 
sister  Giulia  was  Alexander's  mistress,  a  fact  so 
notorious  that  he  came  to  be  dubbed  in  derision 
14  the  petticoat  cardinal."  Alessandro  Farnese 
undoubtedly  showed  great  ability  in  after  days  ; 
but  the  rise  of  his  family  to  wealth  and  greatness 
and  his  own  elevation  to  the  Pontificate  as  Paul  III 
in  1534  were  due  in  the  first  instance  to  his  sister's 
adulterous  connection  with  Rodrigo  Borgia. 

Alexander's  shifting  policy  aroused  mistrust  on 
all  sides.  Notwithstanding  the  apparent  triumph 
of  Cardinal  Ascanio  at  the  Vatican,  his  brother 
Ludovico  Sforza  thought  Milan's  alliance  with  the 
Pope  and  Venice  so  unreliable,  and  was  so  disturbed 
by  the  Borgian  arrangements  with  Naples  lest  they 
should  lead  to  a  combined  demand  on  him  to  give 
up  the  reins  of  government  to  his  nephew  Gian 
Galeazzo,  that  he  sent  envoys  to  Charles  VIII 
urging  him  to  march  into  Italy,  promising  him 
assistance  both  in  men  and  money,  and  inflaming 
the  young  French  king's  romantic  imagination  by 
representing  the  conquest  of  Naples  as  but  a 
84 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

preliminary  step  to  the  glorious  reconquest  of 
Constantinople.  On  the  other  hand,  Ferrante  of 
Naples  was  greatly  disturbed  by  the  Pope's  coquet- 
ting with  the  King  of  France,  and  complained  that 
he  did  nothing  to  hinder  Charles's  dangerous 
designs  on  Italy.  But  on  January  25,  1494, 
Ferrante  died  and  was  succeeded  by  his  vicious 
son  Alfonso  of  Calabria.  Charles  VIII  at  once 
sent  an  embassy  to  Rome  to  demand  the  investi- 
ture of  the  kingdom  of  Naples  ;  whilst  Alfonso 
on  his  part  hastened  to  pay  off  the  tribute  which 
his  father  had  shirked,  undertook  to  continue  it 
punctually,  and  made  other  offers  to  induce  the 
Pope  to  support  him  and  form  an  alliance  against 
Charles.  Alexander  played  fast  and  loose  as  usual. 
Although  in  February  he  wrote  expressing  his  sur- 
prise that  the  French  king  should  entertain  designs 
against  another  Christian  nation  instead  of  uniting 
against  the  common  foe,  in  March  he  sent  Charles 
the  Golden  Rose,  and  approved  of  his  action  in 
raising  an  army,  ostensibly  for  war  against  the 
Turk,  but  really,  as  the  Pope  and  everybody  else 
knew  well  enough,  for  the  conquest  of  Naples. 
But  when  Charles's  envoy  asked  for  the  investiture 
of  that  kingdom  Alexander  refused ;  and  on 
April  18,  having  formally  decided  in  favour  of 
the  House  of  Aragon,  he  appointed  his  nephew, 
Cardinal  Juan  Borgia,  as  legate  to  crown  Alfonso  II 
at  Naples.  Alexander's  apparently  irresolute  policy 
was  probably  coolly  calculated  to  advance  the 
bargaining  which  of  course  went  on  concerning  the 
advancement  of  his  children.  At  any  rate,  it  is 

85 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

significant  that  the  day  before  Alfonso  was  crowned 
the  Pope's  eldest  son,  Giovanni  of  Gandia,  received 
the  principality  of  Tricarico;  his  second  son, 
Cardinal  Cesare,  received  a  number  of  valuable 
benefices  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  and  his 
youngest  son,  Don  Giuffre,  was  married  to  the 
king's  daughter  Sancia,  receiving  with  her  the 
principality  of  Squillace  and  an  income  of  40,000 
ducats.  In  their  opposition  to  these  measures  of 
the  Pope,  Cardinals  Ascanio  Sforza  and  Giuliano 
della  Rovere  were,  for  once  in  their  lives,  in  unison. 
Cardinal  Ascanio  wished  to  leave  Rome,  but  per- 
mission was  refused.  Cardinal  Giuliano  fled  from 
Ostia,  leaving  that  fortress  in  the  hands  of  his 
brother,  and,  with  the  aid  of  Ludovico  Sforza,  made 
his  way  to  the  camp  of  Charles  VIII  at  Lyons, 
where  he  was  warmly  received.  His  urgent  en- 
treaties, added  to  the  representations  of  the  de 
facto  Duke  of  Milan,  materially  hastened  the  French 
invasion  of  Italy. 

Charles  VIII  not  only  gathered  together  a  great 
army,  but,  through  his  agents,  was  very  active  in 
stirring  up  strife  amongst  the  Italians.  Having 
secured  the  active  friendship  of  Milan  and  the 
neutrality  of  Venice,  he  proceeded  to  tamper  with 
some  of  the  Roman  barons,  and  by  Cardinal 
Ascanio  Sforza's  aid  the  Colonna  and  others  were 
induced  to  accept  French  pay.  This,  together 
with  the  fact  that  Charles's  ecclesiastical  allies, 
especially  the  cardinals  Sforza  and  Rovere,  threat- 
ened a  Council  to  depose  the  Pope  on  account 
of  his  simoniacal  election,  drove  Alexander  into  a 
86 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

tight  corner.  In  this  dilemma  he  turned  for  aid 
to  the  very  Turk  for  whose  overthrow  by  Charles's 
army  he  had  been  apparently  so  eager  a  few 
months  previously.  When  sending  to  Bajazet  in 
June  to  ask  for  the  remittance  of  D Jem's  allow- 
ance, which  he  said  he  needed  to  defend  himself 
against  Charles  VIII,  the  Pope  instructed  his  envoy 
to  inform  the  Sultan  that  the  French  king  desired 
to  get  Djem  into  his  power  in  order  to  set  him  up 
in  Constantinople  as  soon  as  Naples  had  been 
conquered.  Wherefore  Bajazet  was  asked  to  afford 
some  aid  to  the  Pope  and  Naples  in  withstanding 
Charles,  and  also  to  use  his  good  offices  to  persuade 
Venice  from  her  present  selfish  neutrality.  When 
the  Pope's  envoy,  a  Genoese .  named  Giorgio 
Bocciardo,  was  returning  home  in  November, 
accompanied  by  an  envoy  from  Sultan  Bajazet 
bringing  answering  letters  and  the  40,000  ducats 
applied  for,  they  were  attacked  and  robbed  both 
of  the  papers  and  the  money  by  the  Prefect  of 
Sinigaglia,  Giovanni  della  Rovere.  The  papers, 
which,  as  the  Prefect  said,  contained  astounding 
things  most  dangerous  to  Christianity,  were  sent 
on  to  Cardinal  Giuliano,  and  promptly  published  by 
Alexander's  enemies.  In  addition  to  the  Pope's 
instructions  to  his  envoy,  in  which  he  promised  to 
remain  on  terms  of  strict  friendship  with  the 
"  Infidel "  in  return  for  the  aids  requested,  and 
the  Sultan's  answer  thereto,  in  which  speedy  aid 
was  promised  to  Naples  as  well  as  an  embassy  to 
Venice — articles  in  themselves  damaging  enough — 
Bajazet  had  sent  another  letter  to  Alexander  con- 

87 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

taining  a  proposal  which  shocked  the  morals  even 
of  that  Machiavellian  era.  He  calmly  proposed  to 
the  Pope  that,  as  the  death  of  Djem  in  the  circum- 
stances would  be  of  benefit  to  both  of  them,  the 
Pope  should  put  the  prince  to  death  in  any  manner 
most  convenient  to  his  Holiness,  and  in  return  for 
the  dead  body  Bajazet  promised  to  send  Alexander 
300,000  ducats  in  cash,  "  to  purchase  some  terri- 
tories for  your  sons." 

Meanwhile  Charles  had  been  advancing  on  his 
career  of  conquest  with  scarcely  any  hindrance. 
After  crossing  the  Alps  he  entered  Turin  on  Septem- 
ber 5,  and  was  welcomed  as  joyfully  as  though  he 
were  a  liberator.  At  Asti,  a  day  or  two  later,  he 
was  greeted  by  Ludovico  Sforza.  Here  he  soon 
heard  of  the  victory  which  his  cousin,  Louis  of 
Orleans,  had  gained  over  Ferrantino  of  Aragon  at 
Rapallo,  when  with  a  savagery  which  struck  terror 
into  the  Italians,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  the 
chess-playing  and  bloodless  methods  of  the  condot- 
tiere,  all  the  inhabitants,  even  the  sick  in  the 
hospital,  were  put  to  the  sword.  On  October  14 
he  entered  Pa  via  in  triumph ;  on  the  18th  he 
reached  Piacenza.  Whilst  there  he  heard  of  the 
death  of  the  unfortunate  Gian  Galeazzo,  by  which 
event  Ludovico  Sforza  became  undisputedly  Duke 
of  Milan.  At  Pavia  Charles  had  visited  the  young 
man  who  lay  there  sick  to  death  in  the  castle,  and 
had  turned  away  from  the  pleadings  of  Gian's  wife 
with  empty  words  of  consolation.  It  was  now 
rumoured  that  Ludovico  had  poisoned  his  nephew, 
but  of  this  there  is  no  sufficient  proof.  On  the 
88 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

26th  Piero  de  Medici,  frightened  out  of  his  wits, 
arrived  at  the  French  camp,  and,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  Charles  and  everybody  else  and  the  sub- 
sequent dismay  and  anger  of  his  fellow  citizens, 
not  only  yielded  up  Florence  and  all  her  fortified 
cities  without  striking  a  blow,  but  undertook  to 
pay  200,000  ducats  into  the  bargain. 

The  Pope,  who  watched  the  French  unopposed 
march  with  trembling,  being  without  an  army, 
unable  to  induce  Venice  to  budge  from  her 
neutrality,  harassed  by  Caterina  Sforza's  declara- 
tion for  France,  and  by  the  treacherous  handing 
over  of  Ostia  to  the  Colonna,  now  sent  Cardinal 
Piccolomini  to  negotiate  with  Charles ;  but  the 
French  king  declined  to  see  him,  and  sent  word 
to  say  he  was  coming  to  Rome  to  confer  with  the 
Pope  in  person.  On  November  9  Charles  came  to 
Pisa,  whose  citizens  welcomed  him  enthusiastically, 
and  immediately  threw  off  their  allegiance  to 
Florence.  On  the  same  day  the  Florentines  ex- 
pelled the  Medici,  and  proclaimed  a  republic  under 
the  guidance  of  Savonarola.  Eight  days  later 
Charles,  with  lance  on  thigh,  rode  at  the  head  of 
his  army  into  Florence.  Imagining  himself  able 
to  impose  what  terms  he  pleased,  his  demands  were 
extravagant ;  and  when  the  deputies  appointed 
by  the  Senate  to  treat  with  him  objected,  he 
threatened  to  sound  his  trumpets.  Then  Pierro 
Capponi,  one  of  the  burgher  deputies,  snatched  the 
paper  out  of  the  secretary's  hands,  tore  it  in  pieces 
in  the  king's  face,  and  answered  boldly,  "  Sire,  if 
you  sound  your  trumpets  we  will  ring  our  bells." 

89 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Charles  had  the  sense  to  know  that  if  driven  to 
desperation  the  Florentines,  who  were  all  armed 
and  who  had  collected  some  six  thousand  soldiers 
within  their  walls,  having  the  advantage  of  all  the 
towers  and  fortified  palaces,  might  easily  get  the 
better  even  of  his  formidable  army,  scattered  as  it 
was  through  the  narrow  streets.  He  accordingly 
gave  way,  agreed  to  more  equitable  terms,  made 
no  further  efforts  on  behalf  of  the  recall  of  the 
Medici,  and  on  November  28  marched  out  of  the 
city  in  the  direction  of  Rome. 

Alexander  VI  was  now  in  a  very  difficult  position. 
The  French  king  was  coming  to  Rome,  it  was 
reported,  for  the  purpose  of  furthering  a  reform  of 
the  Church.  Several  cardinals,  with  Giuliano  della 
Rovere  and  Ascanio  Sforza  at  their  head,  were 
calling  for  a  Council  to  depose  the  Pope  on  account 
of  his  simoniacal  election,  to  which  of  course  he 
well  knew  they  were  able  to  bear  witness.  He 
could  not  break  with  Alfonso  of  Aragon  without 
risking  the  forfeiture  of  some  of  the  great  family 
advantages  which  his  Neapolitan  alliance  had 
gained  for  him.  Envoys  passed  to  and  fro  between 
the  Pope  and  the  King.  Alexander  proposed  that 
he  should  come  to  meet  Charles  in  order  to  discuss 
with  him  his  proposed  Crusade ;  but  the  King 
replied  that  he  would  rather  visit  his  Holiness  in 
the  Vatican.  Meantime  Alexander  fortified  and 
provisioned  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  and  called  in 
from  the  Romagna  the  troops  under  Virginio  Orsini, 
the  Counts  of  Pitigliano  and  Trivulzio,  and  the  six 
thousand  Neapolitans  under  the  young  Duke  of 
90 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

Calabria.  The  sight  of  this  little  army  seems  to 
have  given  him  a  momentary  accession  of  courage, 
for,  although  the  negotiations  with  Charles  were 
still  going  on,  and  seemed  indeed  to  be  on  the 
point  of  conclusion,  he  suddenly  arrested  the 
Cardinals  Ascanio  Sforza,  Sanseverino  and  Lunate, 
who,  together  with  Prospero  Colonna  and  Girolama 
Estouteville,  had  come  into  Rome  under  his  safe 
conduct  to  discuss  matters.  At  the  same  time  the 
French  ambassador  was  informed  that  his  master 
could  not  be  granted  a  safe  passage  through  the 
States  of  the  Church.  Nevertheless  the  French 
steadily  advanced,  sacking  every  place  they  came 
to,  although  meeting  with  no  resistance.  On 
December  10  Charles  entered  Viterbo,  from  which 
the  Papal  governor  had  fled.  On  the  17th  he  took 
Civita  Vecchia ;  and  on  the  same  day  Virginio 
Orsini  went  over  to  the  French  side  and  delivered 
up  his  strong  castle  of  Bracciano,  where  Charles 
set  up  his  headquarters.  For  weeks  the  Pope  had 
been  irresolute  whether  to  fight  or  fly.  All  his 
valuables  had  been  transferred  to  St.  Angelo,  and 
everything  else  in  the  Vatican,  down  to  bed  and 
table  services,  had  been  packed  for  removal.  In 
the  end  he  did  neither.  The  Roman  populace 
called  for  a  treaty  with  Charles,  and  declared  that 
if  the  Pope  did  not  agree  to  this  within  two  days 
they  themselves  would  admit  the  King  to  the  city. 
On  December  24  the  Pope,  in  Consistory,  told  the 
young  Duke  of  Calabria  that  his  Neapolitan  troops 
must  leave  Rome,  whereupon  Don  Ferrantino 
indignantly  quitted  the  assembly.  But  even  at 

91 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

the  last  moment  Alexander  was  undecided  what 
to  do,  and  on  the  25th  an  agreement  was  drawn 
up  between  him  and  the  Duke  whereby  it  was 
agreed  that  he  should  accompany  the  Neapolitan 
troops,  taking  Prince  Djem  with  him,  and  that  as 
long  as  he  remained  in  Naples  he  should  receive 
50,000  ducats  a  year  and  be  accommodated  with 
the  fortress  of  Gaeta  for  Djem's  safe  preservation. 
Before  the  day  was  out,  however,  he  had  acceded 
to  the  French  king's  demands,  released  Cardinal 
Ascanio  from  prison,  and  arranged  for  Charles's 
entry  into  Rome. 

On  December  31,  1494,  from  three  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  until  nine  o'clock  at  night,  the  long 
files  of  the  French  army  were  marching  through 
the  gates  of  the  Eternal  City  amidst  shouts  of 
"  Francia  !  "  "  Colonna  !  "  "  Vincoli !  "  from  the 
excited  populace.  All  the  houses  displayed  French 
favours  ;  and  when  darkness  came  on  the  streets 
were  lighted  with  lamps  and  torches,  whose  fitful 
illumination  made  men  and  horses  loom  larger  and 
more  formidable  than  they  really  were.  About 
seven  in  the  evening  the  King  arrived  at  the  Porta 
del  Popolo,  and,  having  formally  received  all  the 
keys  of  the  city,  rode  through  the  streets  with 
lance  in  rest  to  the  palace  which  had  been  prepared 
for  him.  He  was  a  queer  figure  of  a  conqueror. 
Twenty-two  years  of  age,  short  of  stature,  with 
emaciated  legs,  a  malformed  disproportionately 
large  head,  an  immense  crooked  nose,  thick  lips 
always  open,  and  large,  lustreless,  short-sighted 
eyes,  his  hideous  personal  appearance,  which  was 
92 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

peculiarly  repulsive  to  the  beauty-loving  Italians, 
was  unrelieved  by  any  intellectual  compensations. 
Guicciardini  says  that  he  was  not  only  ignorant 
of  any  liberal  art,  but  that  he  scarcely  knew  his 
letters  ;  that  he  hated  the  fatigue  of  business,  and 
invariably  showed  want  of  judgment  in  any  matters 
that  he  took  in  hand  ;  that  though  eager  to  rule, 
he  was  utterly  incompetent  to  exercise  authority  ; 
and  that  his  desire  for  glory  sprang  from  empty 
vanity.  That  this  is  not  altogether  the  biased 
opinion  of  an  Italian  enemy  is  evident  from  the 
account  of  him  given  by  his  own  follower,  De 
Comines,  who  describes  Charles  as  weak  and  wilful, 
destitute  of  good  sense  himself,  and  surrounded 
by  foolish  advisers.  Such  was  the  man  who  now 
entered  into  a  diplomatic  contest  with  the  subtle 
and  wily  Rodrigo  Borgia.  Both  parties  had  fears 
that  their  negotiations  might  be  cut  short  by 
violent  or  underhand  methods.  Alexander  en- 
trenched himself  in  the  Borgo,  surrounded  by  his 
palace  guards  and  a  thousand  horse.  Charles  had 
cannon  mounted  in  front  of  the  palace  of  San 
Marco,  where  he  sat  down  to  table  alone,  with  a 
chamberlain  to  taste  every  dish  and  four  physicians 
to  examine  every  glass  of  wine  that  was  served  to 
him.  Cesare  Borgia  and  all  the  other  cardinals 
waited  upon  the  King  two  days  after  his  entry. 
They  were  received  haughtily,  and  Charles's  first 
demands  were  that  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo  should 
be  delivered  up  to  him,  that  Prince  Djem  should 
also  be  handed  over  unconditionally,  and  that 
Cardinal  Cesare  should  accompany  him  to  Naples 

93 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

as  hostage  for  the  due  observance  of  any  treaty 
that  might  be  agreed  upon. 

But  Rodrigo  Borgia  was  not  the  man  to  deliver 
himself  up  bound  hand  and  foot  in  this  fashion, 
notwithstanding  that  he  was  virtually  a  prisoner 
in  the  hands  of  the  most  powerful  prince  in 
Christendom,  whose  cannon  could  shatter  the 
crumbling  walls  of  St.  Angelo  within  a  few  hours. 
Cardinals  Giuliano  della  Rovere  and  Ascanio  Sforza, 
together  with  Gurk,  Sanseverino,  St.  Denis,  Savelli 
and  Colonna,  were  by  the  King's  side,  urging  him 
to  call  a  Council,  and  having  in  their  hands  a  decree 
already  drawn  up  for  the  deposition  of  an  unworthy 
Pope  who  had  obtained  his  elevation  by  simony. 
It  lay  within  Charles's  power,  remarks  Gregorovius, 
to  deliver  the  Church  from  Alexander  VI ;  and  the 
baneful  figure  of  Cesare  Borgia  would  never  have 
risen  to  historic  importance  had  this  vain  and 
ambitious  young  king  possessed  sufficient  wisdom 
and  firmness  to  support  those  cardinals  who  were 
calling  for  a  reform  of  the  Curia.  But  although 
he  made  threat  after  threat,  and  thrice  pointed  his 
cannon  against  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  he  was 
completely  foiled  by  the  subtle  Borgia  ;  and  the 
terms  ultimately  agreed  upon  between  them  freed 
the  Pope  from  all  his  fears  and  spread  consterna- 
tion amongst  his  enemies.  By  the  treaty  which 
was  signed  on  January  15,  1495,  Alexander  agreed 
to  give  up  Civita  Vecchia,  to  appoint  governors  of 
Charles's  choice  in  the  cities  of  the  Patrimony,  to 
grant  complete  amnesty  to  those  cardinals  and 
nobles  who  had  espoused  the  French  cause,  to 
94 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

give  the  French  army  free  passage  through  the 
territories  of  the  Church,  to  hand  over  Prince 
Djem  to  Charles  in  order  to  further  his  expedition 
against  the  Turks  (though  the  Pope  was  still  to 
retain  the  Sultan's  pension),  and  to  send  Cardinal 
Cesare  Borgia  with  the  French  army  for  the  next 
four  months,  nominally  as  legate,  but  really,  of 
course,  as  hostage.  Charles,  on  his  part,  promised 
to  recognise  Alexander  as  Pope  and  to  defend 
him  in  all  his  rights.  The  opposition  cardinals 
were  utterly  discomfited  and  dismayed.  Lunate 
and  Ascanio  Sforza  left  Rome  for  Milan  at 
once ;  Giuliano  della  Rovere,  notwithstanding 
the  Pope's  blandishments,  refused  to  trust  him, 
and  remained  under  the  protection  of  the  French 
king. 

The  day  after  this  treaty  was  signed  Charles 
accepted  Alexander's  invitation  to  take  up  his 
quarters  in  the  Vatican.  Their  first  interview  was 
carefully  arranged  beforehand.  Alexander  entered 
the  garden  by  way  of  the  tunnel  from  St.  Angelo  ; 
the  King,  who  appeared  as  though  by  accident 
walking  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  entrance  to 
this  passage,  advanced  towards  his  Holiness  and 
bent  his  knee  ;  Alexander,  lifting  his  cap,  came 
forward  and  raised  Charles  by  the  arm,  kissed  him, 
and  insisted  on  remaining  uncovered  until  the 
other  had  replaced  his  hat.  Charles  then  requested 
a  cardinalate  for  his  favourite  Briyonnet,  and  as 
this  minister  had  already  been  secretly  won  over 
to  the  Pope's  side,  the  request  was  immediately 
complied  with.  Then,  taking  the  King's  hand, 

95 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Alexander  led  him  into  the  palace,  where  they  had 
no  sooner  arrived  than  his  Holiness  was  overcome 
by  a  fainting  fit  which  necessitated  his  being  placed 
in  a  chair,  probably  an  assumed  swoon  artfully 
contrived  to  enable  the  Pope  to  be  seated  during 
the  interview  without  raising  any  disputable  point 
of  etiquette.  Three  days  later  a  Consistory  was 
held,  when  the  French  conqueror  made  public 
profession  of  the  obedience  which  he  had  hitherto 
refused.  Alexander  seems  to  have  been  rather 
taken  by  surprise  when  the  President  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris  explained  that  it  was  the  custom  in 
France  that  whenever  a  vassal  made  his  homage 
to  an  over-lord  he  should  receive  in  return  whatso- 
ever favour  he  requested,  wherefore  the  King  of 
France  demanded  three  things  :  firstly,  confirma- 
tion of  all  the  privileges  hitherto  granted  to  himself, 
his  wife,  and  his  heir ;  secondly,  the  investiture  of 
the  kingdom  of  Naples  to  him  and  his  successors 
for  ever ;  thirdly,  that  the  security  he  had  given 
for  the  return  of  Prince  Djem  within  six  months 
might  be  retracted.  With  his  accustomed  subtlety 
the  Pope  answered  that  the  privileges  referred  to 
were  willingly  confirmed  ;  but  that  as  the  investi- 
ture of  Naples  involved  other  interests  it  could 
not  be  given  until  after  deliberation  and  the  assent 
of  his  cardinals,  with  whom,  however,  he  promised 
to  use  his  best  endeavours ;  whilst  as  regards  Prince 
Djem  he  would  take  a  fitter  opportunity  to  talk 
the  matter  over  with  his  Majesty  and  the  Sacred 
College,  having  little  doubt  it  could  be  accommo- 
dated to  their  mutual  satisfaction.  Seemingly 
96 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

quite  satisfied  with  this  rather  evasive  reply, 
Charles  kissed  the  Pope's  hand  and  foot ;  and  in 
the  prescribed  form  tendered  his  obedience  and 
reverence,  acknowledging  Alexander  as  Vicar  of 
Christ,  and  promising  to  defend  both  his  Holiness 
and  the  Church  against  all  enemies.  After  spend- 
ing another  week  in  Rome,  during  which  the  Pope 
and  the  King  made  a  public  display  of  their 
alliance  and  friendship  by  riding  out  together 
and  by  going  in  state  to  the  feast  of  the  Con- 
version of  St.  Paul,  Charles  set  out  for  Naples  on 
January  28. 

Alfonso  II  did  not  await  his  enemy's  arrival. 
He  was  reputed  to  be  the  first  general  in  Italy  ; 
he  was  provided  with  abundant  pecuniary  re- 
sources ;  his  fortresses  were  admirably  equipped  ; 
and  he  was  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  army.  But 
partisans  of  Anjou  arose  on  every  side,  so  that  in 
his  terror  he  would  start  up  from  sleep  imagining 
the  very  winds  and  waves  were  shrieking  "  France  ! 
France  !  "  in  his  ears.  He  must  have  known  that, 
to  use  Sanudo's  words,  even  Nero  would  have  seemed 
a  saint  beside  two  such  accursed  despots  as  himself 
and  his  father  ;  and,  overwhelmed  by  the  results 
of  his  infamous  misgovernment,  he  formally  abdi- 
cated on  January  23  in  favour  of  his  youthful  son 
Ferrantino,  taking  his  treasures  with  him  to 
Sicily  and  immuring  himself  in  a  cloister  at 
Mazzarra,  where,  fortunately  for  the  world,  he 
died  in  the  following  November.  Charles  heard 
of  Alfonso's  abdication  at  the  end  of  his  first  day's 
march,  at  Marino.  At  Velletri,  which  was  his  next 

G  97 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

halt,  two  Spanish  ambassadors  came  to  protest 
against  his  enterprise  ;  but  Charles,  who  seemed 
to  be  climbing  with  little  trouble  to  the  highest 
pinnacle  of  glory,  was  not  to  be  moved  from  his 
purpose.  In  the  morning,  however,  a  disturbing 
surprise  awaited  him ;  his  hostage,  Cesare  Borgia, 
had  mysteriously  disappeared  ;  and  it  soon  became 
evident  that  the  young  cardinal's  escape  had  been 
carefully  prearranged.  As  befitted  a  Pope's  son, 
who  was  also  a  legate,  Cesare  had  brought  with 
him  a  number  of  baggage  waggons,  two  of  which, 
on  being  unloaded  at  the  first  halt,  were  seen  to  be 
filled  with  silver  plate  for  the  service  of  his  table. 
But  when,  on  the  news  of  his  flight,  the  French 
soldiers  went  to  plunder  the  other  waggons,  they 
were  found  to  be  filled  with  stones.  It  is  supposed 
that  Cesare  contrived  to  have  the  two  waggons 
containing  his  valuables  left  behind  at  Marino,  and 
that  during  the  following  night  at  Velletri,  in  the 
disguise  of  a  groom,  he  had  taken  horse  and 
hurried  back  to  Rome.  Next  morning  Alexander 
heard  that  his  son  was  hiding  in  the  house  of  the 
auditor  Antonio  Flores  ;  whence  he  got  away  in 
safety  first  to  Rignano  and  then  to  Spoleto.  The 
Roman  people  sent  envoys  to  Charles  repudiating 
any  complicity  in  this  breach  of  faith  ;  and  the 
Pope  also,  on  the  receipt  of  an  angry  protest  from 
the  King,  sent  word  that  he  had  had  no  hand  in 
the  matter  and  was  ignorant  of  his  son's  where- 
abouts. But  he  made  no  offer  of  another  hostage, 
and  Charles  could  see  that  he  had  been  tricked. 
Turning  back,  however,  as  the  Borgia  had  calcu- 
98 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

lated,  was  entirely  out  of  the  question;  and  the 
French  army  marched  on,  finding  no  force  to 
oppose  their  progress.  Trivulzio  delivered  up 
Capua  ;  Virginio  Orsini  and  Pitigliano  surrendered 
at  Nola ;  and  young  Ferrantino,  retiring  on  his 
capital,  found  the  city  in  revolt,  and  was  forced  to 
take  boat  for  Ischia.  On  February  22  Charles 
rode  into  Naples  in  triumph  amidst  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  people.  Except  for  the  storming  of  a 
couple  of  fortresses  and  the  slaughter  of  their 
garrisons,  which  had  been  permitted  merely  to 
satisfy  the  hatred  of  the  Colonna  for  the 
Conti,  there  had  been  no  fighting ;  the  French, 
as  Alexander  sarcastically  remarked,  having 
overrun  Italy  in  a  few  weeks  with  no  other 
arms  than  a  piece  of  chalk  to  mark  out  their 
quarters. 

Three  days  after  his  arrival  in  Naples  with  Charles, 
Prince  Djem  died.  Alexander's  enemies  at  once 
accused  him  of  having  poisoned  the  Turkish  prince  ; 
and  Paolo  Giovio  relates  circumstantially  that 
before  being  delivered  over  to  the  French  he  had 
been  dosed  with  a  certain  white  powder  mixed  in 
sugar,  capable  of  envenoming  any  liquor,  and 
inappreciable  either  by  colour  or  taste.  Some 
modern  authorities,  including  Thousane  and 
Gregorovius,  seem  inclined  to  credit  the  poison 
theory.  But  the  Pope  would  lose  40,000  ducats 
a  year  by  the  death  of  Djem  under  these  circum- 
stances without  any  prospect  of  obtaining  the 
larger  sum  which  Bajazet  had  offered  for  his  dead 
body ;  and  Alexander  VI  was  by  no  means  the 

99 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

man  to  do  this  merely  to  spite  Charles  VIII.  It 
seems  far  more  probable  that  the  Turk,  enfeebled 
by  dissolute  habits  and  by  eight  years'  seclusion 
in  the  hot  rooms  of  the  Vatican,  succumbed  to  an 
attack  of  bronchitis  or  dysentery,  brought  on  by 
the  hardships  of  a  winter  journey  as  a  military 
prisoner.  The  death  of  Djem  seems  to  have  put 
an  end  to  Charles's  project  of  a  crusade.  After 
receiving  the  homage  of  the  Neapolitan  nobility 
and  people,  he  demanded  the  investiture  of  the 
kingdom  from  the  Pope  ;  and  whilst  Alexander 
hesitated  or  temporised  he  abandoned  himself  to 
his  customary  dissipation.  But  all  the  powers  of 
Europe  were  now  thoroughly  alarmed,  and  there 
were  signs  of  a  gathering  storm.  Spain,  having 
already  made  formal  protest  against  the  French 
aggression,  sent  her  great  captain,  Gonsalvo  de 
Cordova,  to  Sicily  with  a  body  of  troops.  The 
Emperor  Maximilian  was  disturbed  at  the  prospect 
of  Charles  obtaining  the  hegemony  of  Europe. 
Venice  now  realised  that  there  was  real  danger  to 
herself.  The  Pope  feared  a  Council  from  France 
triumphant.  And  Ludovico  Sforza,  who  had  in- 
vited Charles  into  Italy  to  bring  about  disturbance 
rather  than  conquest,  so  that  in  the  confusion  he 
might  more  firmly  establish  himself,  was  now 
greatly  disquieted  by  the  claims  of  Orleans  on  the 
duchy  of  Milan.  These  powers  therefore  formed 
a  league  on  March  31,  ostensibly  for  defence 
against  the  Turk,  but  really  for  united  action 
against  the  French  conqueror ;  and  Charles, 
who  knew  well  enough  what  the  combination 
100 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

meant,    saw   that  nothing  remained  for  him  but  a 
safe  retreat. 

Had  the  various  Italian  States  united  to  oppose 
the  French  invasion,  which  might  well  have  hap- 
pened had  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  been  still  alive, 
Charles  would  never  have  reached  Naples  ;  had 
they  now  carried  out  the  purpose  of  their  league 
with  vigour  and  resolution,  his  retreat  would  have 
become  a  hopeless  rout.  And  he  gave  them  every 
opportunity  ;  for  it  was  not  until  May  12  that, 
finding  it  impossible  to  extort  his  investiture  from 
the  Pope,  he  asserted  his  unsupported  claims  to 
the  kingdom  of  Naples  and  the  Empire  of  the  East 
in  the  Neapolitan  cathedral ;  and  not  until  the 
20th  of  that  month  that,  leaving  Montpensier  with 
half  his  army  to  hold  the  conquered  kingdom,  he 
set  out  with  the  remaining  half  on  his  way  back  to 
France.  The  Pope  had  received  troops  from  no 
member  of  the  league  except  Venice,  and,  doubtful 
of  his  ability  to  defend  himself  against  even  half 
of  the  French  army,  he  retired,  with  twenty  of  his 
cardinals  and  10,000  troops,  to  Orvieto.  On  June  1 
Charles  VIII  re-entered  Rome,  where  he  was 
received  with  all  due  honour,  according  to  the 
Pope's  instructions.  On  this  occasion  he  enforced 
strict  discipline  amongst  his  troops  and  made  offers 
of  a  tribute  if  the  Pope  would  grant  him  the 
investiture  of  Naples.  But  Alexander  kept  out  of 
the  way,  and  Charles  was  forced  to  resume  his 
retreat.  At  Siena  on  the  13th  Savonarola  came 
to  meet  him  and  warned  him  that  he  had  incurred 
the  wrath  of  God  by  neglecting  to  reform  the 

101 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Church.  At  Pisa  he  was  implored  by  the  inhabi- 
tants not  to  deliver  them  over  again  to  Florence. 
He  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  both,  and  continued  his 
march.  Had  the  allies  thrown  themselves  upon 
him  he  must  have  been  annihilated  ;  but  he  was 
allowed  to  cross  the  Apennines  with  all  his  baggage 
and  artillery,  and  it  was  not  until  he  reached  the 
river  Taro,  near  Fornuovo,  that  the  forces  of  the 
league  under  Francesco  Gonzaga  barred  his  way 
and  gave  him  battle  on  July  6.  Both  sides  claimed 
the  victory ;  but  although  Charles  lost  all  the 
immense  booty  which  he  had  plundered  from 
Naples  and  other  towns  of  Italy,  his  loss  of  men 
was  far  less  than  that  of  his  opponents,  and  he 
was  able  to  reach  Asti  in  safety.  After  giving  his 
soldiers  a  much-needed  rest,  he  established  himself 
in  Turin.  His  cousin,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  was 
now  besieged  by  the  allied  forces  in  Novara ;  and 
Charles  set  about  endeavouring  to  detach  Milan 
from  the  league.  Meanwhile  the  Pope,  his  personal 
danger  having  passed,  had  returned  to  Rome, 
whence  at  the  instigation  of  Venice  he  commanded 
Charles  to  withdraw  all  his  troops  from  Italy  on 
pain  of  excommunication.  About  the  same  time 
young  Ferrantino  of  Aragon,  having  received  aid 
from  the  Pope  and  Venice  and  Spain,  drove 
Montpensier  out  of  Naples  and  recovered  his 
kingdom.  Once  more  the  successes  of  his  allies 
threatened  to  become  inconvenient  to  Ludovico 
Sforza ;  and  consequently,  without  their  know- 
ledge, he  made  a  separate  treaty  with  Charles, 
which  gave  him  back  Novara,  left  him  in  undis- 
102 


THE  FRENCH  INVASION 

turbed  possession  of  his  duchy,  and  allowed  the 
French  king  to  return  to  his  own  dominions, 
despoiled  of  his  plunder,  and  followed  by  the 
diseased  and  dirty  remnant  of  his  once  magnificent 
army. 


103 


IV 
DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

THE  disappearance  of  the  French  menace  left 
Alexander  VI  free  once  more  to  pursue  his  darling 
project  of  advancing  the  worldly  fortunes  of  his 
children.  The  crimes  with  which  the  Borgia  have 
been  charged  have  sometimes  led  to  the  impression 
that  they  were  savage,  sombre,  and  ferocious 
monsters.  Superficially,  at  any  rate,  they  pre- 
sented a  very  different  appearance  to  their 
contemporaries.  Vicious  they  undoubtedly  were, 
even  according  to  the  lax  moral  standard  of  their 
day.  But  at  the  same  time  they  were  as  graceful 
and  attractive  and  charming  a  set  of  people  as 
could  be  found  in  any  of  the  courts  of  Italy. 
Alexander  VI  was  noted  for  the  dignity  of  his 
manners,  the  eloquence  of  his  speech,  the  charm 
of  his  address,  and  for  a  geniality  and  gaiety  that 
never  failed  him.  In  these  respects  most  of  his 
family  seem  to  have  been  no  less  happily  endowed. 
They  were  all  bright,  lively,  pleasure-loving  young 
people,  rather  barbaric  in  their  love  of  magnificence 
and  display,  but  fairly  versed  in  the  culture  of  their 
time,  and  fond  of  the  society  of  artists  and  men  of 
letters.  Before  the  French  invasion  came  about 
they  had  all  been  already  abundantly  provided 
104 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

for.  Vanozza's  eldest  son,  Giovanni,  had  succeeded 
Don  Pedro  Luis  in  the  dukedom  of  Gandia.  Part 
of  the  Pope's  bargain  with  Alfonso  II  in  return  for 
the  investiture  of  Naples  had  been  the  conferring 
on  Giovanni  of  the  Principality  of  Tricarico  and 
the  Countships  of  Claromonte,  Lauria,  and  Carinola. 
It  was  Alexander's  desire  to  make  this  favourite  son 
of  his  a  great  prince  ;  and  he  proposed  now  to 
endow  him  with  the  extensive  possessions  of  the 
Orsini.  The  moment  was  a  favourable  one,  for 
Virginio  Orsini  and  his  son,  Giovanni  Giordano, 
had  been  forced  to  capitulate  with  the  French 
garrison  at  Atilla,  and  were  being  kept  in  prison  by 
Ferrantino  of  Naples  at  the  Pope's  request,  so 
that  the  Orsini  family  were  deprived  of  their 
ablest  generals.  The  Duke  of  Gandia  was  sum- 
moned from  Spain  to  Rome,  where  he  arrived  on 
August  10,  1496,  and  was  soon  afterwards  made 
standard-bearer  of  the  Church,  Governor  of  Viterbo, 
and  Legate  of  the  whole  Patrimony,  Giulia's 
brother,  Cardinal  Farnese,  being  removed  from 
the  last-named  post  in  order  to  make  room  for 
him.  Then,  having  secured  the  services  of  Guido- 
baldo  of  Urbino  to  lead  the  Papal  forces,  Alexander, 
who  had  an  exaggerated  opinion  of  the  military 
talents  of  his  son,  appointed  Giovanni  second  in 
command.  The  expedition  set  out  in  October ; 
and  at  first  did  very  well.  The  strongholds  of 
Scrofano,  Galera,  Formello,  and  Campagnano  were 
easily  taken  one  after  another,  and  Anguillara 
gave  itself  up  without  any  resistance.  Then  siege 
was  laid  to  Trevignano  and  the  impregnable  five- 

105 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

towered  castle  of  Bracciano,  when,  unfortunately 
for  the  Papal  forces,  the  Duke  of  Urbino  was 
wounded  and  the  command  devolved  upon  the 
Duke  of  Gandia.  Towards  the  end  of  November 
Trevignano  surrendered  ;  but  Bracciano  held  out 
until  it  was  relieved  by  a  force  under  Vitelozzo 
Vitelli  of  Citta  di  Castello,  which  on  January  25, 
1497,  totally  routed  the  Papal  forces,  wounded  the 
Duke  of  Gandia,  and  took  the  Duke  of  Urbino 
prisoner.  Alexander  was  compelled  to  make  peace 
at  once  ;  and  was  nearly  beside  himself  at  this 
failure  of  his  first  attempt  to  crush  one  of  the 
great  and  turbulent  Roman  baronial  houses  and 
transfer  their  possessions  to  his  own  family. 
Although  the  Orsini  agreed  to  pay  him  50,000 
golden  florins,  and  submitted  to  his  retaining 
possession  of  Cervetri  and  Anguillara,  he  was 
forced  to  restore  all  their  other  castles,  so  that  they 
remained  masters  of  the  Campagna  ;  whilst  the 
French  still  held  Ostia  and  seriously  interfered 
with  the  import  of  provisions  into  Rome.  In  this 
difficulty  Alexander  invoked  the  aid  of  Spain,  and 
Gonsalvo  of  Cardova  coming  to  his  assistance  with 
1000  foot  and  600  horse  forced  Ostia  to  capitulate 
within  a  fortnight.  On  March  15  Gonsalvo  and 
the  Duke  of  Gandia,  "  the  one  an  able  statesman 
and  general,  the  other  a  mere  stage  prince  bedizened 
with  ornaments  and  tinsel,"  returned  in  triumph 
to  Rome. 

In  the  previous  February  the  Pope  had 
strengthened  his  influence  in  the  Sacred  College 
by  adding  four  more  Spanish  cardinals  to  the  five 
106 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

who  were  already  there,  one  of  the  new  creations 
being  his  sister's  son,  Juan  Borgia.  He  now  felt 
strong  enough  to  deprive  Cardinal  Giuliano  della 
Rovere  of  all  his  benefices,  and  to  remove  that 
cardinal's  brother,  Giovanni,  from  the  Prefecture 
of  Rome.  Then,  having  failed  to  enrich  his  son, 
Giovanni,  by  spoiling  the  Orsini,  Alexander  pro- 
ceeded to  endow  him  with  a  principality  at  the 
expense  of  the  Church.  On  June  7,  in  a  secret 
consistory,  the  duchy  of  Benevento  and  the  cities 
of  Terracina  and  Pontecorvo  were  handed  over  to 
the  Duke  of  Gandia  as  hereditary  possessions ; 
only  one  out  of  twenty-seven  cardinals  venturing 
to  utter  the  slightest  protest. 

Vanozza's  second  son,  Cesare,  although  nomi- 
nated to  an  archbishopric  on  the  day  of  his  father's 
coronation,  had  not  been  allowed  to  enter  Rome 
until  two  months  afterwards.  He  disliked  the 
idea  of  an  ecclesiastical  career ;  and  as  early  as 
March  1493  there  had  been  talk  of  his  relinquishing 
the  priesthood  and  marrying  one  of  the  natural 
daughters  of  the  King  of  Naples.  The  Ferrarese 
ambassador,  Boccaccio,  who  was  on  intimate  terms 
with  the  young  man,  mentions  having  met  him 
one  day  about  that  time  just  as  he  was  going  out 
hunting,  dressed,  not  as  an  ecclesiastic,  but  in  silk, 
and  armed,  like  a  layman.  His  bearing,  we  learn, 
was  princely,  and  he  was  endowed  with  great 
talents  and  a  very  charming  personality.  Like  his 
father  and  his  sister,  he  was  remarkable  for  high 
spirits,  a  smiling  countenance,  and  a  ready  laugh. 
His  appearance,  we  are  told,  was  more  distinguished 

107 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

than  that  of  his  elder  brother  the  Duke  of  Gandia, 
although  the  latter  also  was  highly  endowed.  He 
never  had  any  inclination  for  the  priesthood,  adds 
Boccaccio,  and  if  the  projected  marriage  takes 
place,  his  benefices,  which  are  worth  16,000  ducats 
annually,  will  fall  to  his  younger  brother,  Giuffre. 
This  projected  marriage  never  came  to  anything  ; 
and  six  months  later,  on  September  20,  1493, 
Cesare  was  created  Cardinal-Deacon  of  Santa 
Maria  Nuova  at  the  age  of  eighteen.  He  had  given 
the  first  proof  of  that  subtlety  and  daring  and 
unscrupulousness  for  which  he  afterwards  became 
so  famous  by  escaping  from  Charles  VIII's  army 
at  Velletri  in  January  1495  ;  and  at  the  date  we 
have  now  reached,  though  only  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  was  a  personage  of  great  wealth  and  immense 
influence  in  Rome. 

Vanozza's  third  son,  Giuffre,  now  sixteen  years 
of  age,  had  been  married  three  years  previously  to 
Donna  Sancia  of  Aragon,  and  had  thereby  become 
Prince  of  Squillace  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  He 
and  his  wife  did  not  appear  in  Rome  until  May 
1496,  when  they  entered  the  Eternal  City  in  royal 
state,  being  met  by  Lucrezia  and  her  suite  as  well 
as  by  ambassadors,  cardinals,  and  nobles,  who 
escorted  them  to  the  Vatican.  Donna  Sancia,  a 
beautiful  but  giddy  girl,  who  had  been  brought 
up  in  one  vicious  court  and  was  now  transferred 
to  another  equally  vicious,  and  in  which,  as  the 
wife  of  a  boy  husband,  she  was  allowed  greater 
freedom,  soon  got  herself  scandalously  talked 
about.  Not  only  were  several  young  cardinals  and 
108 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

Roman  nobles  believed  to  enjoy  her  favours,  but 
it  was  also  whispered  that  her  two  brothers-in- 
law,  the  Duke  of  Gandia,  and  Cardinal  Cesare, 
were  favoured  by  her  in  turn,  and  that  they 
quarrelled  for  the  exclusive  possession  of  her. 

Lucrezia,  as  we  have  already  seen,  had  been 
married  to  Giovanni  Sforza,  Lord  of  Pesaro,  in 
June  1493.  After  her  marriage,  as  before,  she  lived 
and  held  her  court  in  the  palace  of  S.  Maria  in 
Portico,  with  Madonna  Adriana  Mila-Orsini  in 
attendance  upon  her.  Vanozza  remained  in  her 
own  house  in  the  Regolo  quarter,  evidently  keeping 
up  constant  intercourse  with  her  illustrious 
children,  although  there  is  no  record  of  her  ever 
having  set  foot  in  the  Vatican.  Giovanni  Sforza, 
like  most  of  his  family,  was  a  handsome  man  of 
noble  bearing  and  princely  demeanour.  A  medal 
struck  some  ten  years  after  his  marriage  to  Lucrezia 
shows  him  as  possessing  a  high  forehead,  an 
aquiline  nose,  a  sensitive  mouth,  long  flowing  locks, 
and  a  full  beard.  There  is  no  evidence  that  he 
was  not  quite  as  attractive  to  Lucrezia,  as  that 
charming,  delicate-featured,  blue-eyed,  golden- 
haired,  slender,  but  beautifully  proportioned,  and 
always  gay  and  smiling  young  girl  presumably 
was  to  him.  Soon  after  his  marriage  we  hear  of 
him  riding  out  with  his  brother-in-law,  the  Duke 
of  Gandia,  both  richly  dressed  in  garments  glittering 
with  jewels,  as  though  they  were  two  kings  ;  and 
everybody  thought,  as  the  Ferrarese  ambassador 
prognosticated,  that  "  so  long  as  this  Pope  rules, 
the  illustrious  Lord  Giovanni  will  be  a  great  man 

109 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

in  Rome."  But  his  uncles,  Cardinal  Ascanio  and 
Duke  Ludovico  Sforza,  had  married  him  to  Lucrezia 
for  the  express  purpose  of  engaging  the  Pope  on 
the  side  of  Milan  against  Naples  ;  consequently 
when  Alexander  shifted  his  ground  and  granted 
the  investiture  of  that  kingdom  to  Alfonso  II, 
whilst  Charles  VIII  on  Ludovico  Sforza's  invita- 
tion was  preparing  his  expedition  for  its  conquest, 
the  Pope's  son-in-law  found  his  position  at  the 
Vatican  somewhat  awkward,  In  April  1494  he 
wrote  to  his  uncle  Ludovico  begging  for  his  support, 
and  plainly  hinting  that  he  feared  being  deprived 
of  his  principality.  Early  in  June  he  betook 
himself  to  his  own  city,  taking  his  bride  with  him 
according  to  nuptial  contract ;  Lucrezia  being 
accompanied  by  her  mother,  together  with  the 
Pope's  confidential  cousin,  Madonna  Adriana,  and 
his  beloved  mistress,  Giulia  Farnese.  Lucrezia  and 
her  husband  were  to  remain  at  Pesaro  for  a  year. 
It  was  proposed  that  the  others  should  remain 
with  her  until  August ;  but  from  a  letter  of  the 
Pope  to  his  daughter  dated  July  24th  it  appears 
that  Adriana  and  the  precious  Giulia  had  then 
left  Pesaro  in  order  to  look  after  the  latter's 
brother,  who  was  sick  of  fever  at  Capodimonte. 
The  letter  exhibits  the  Holy  Father's  anxiety  for 
the  safety  of  his  concubine ;  and  that  anxiety 
was  not  unwarranted,  for  on  November  27  fol- 
lowing, whilst  Charles  VIII  was  in  Florence,  a 
troop  of  French  cavalry  who  had  been  scouring 
the  Patrimony  captured  the  ladies  Adriana  and 
Giulia,  with  their  suite,  as  they  were  travelling 
110 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

from  Capodimonte  to  Viterbo.  The  French 
captain,  when  he  discovered  who  his  beautiful 
captives  were,  demanded  3000  ducats  as  ransom, 
for  which  sum  Giulia  at  once  wrote  to  Rome.  The 
Pope  was  frantic.  He  sent  one  messenger  to 
Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza,  who  was  with  the  Colonna, 
and  another  to  Cardinal  Sanseverino,  who  was 
with  the  French  king,  imploring  their  assistance 
to  obtain  the  release  of  the  fair  prisoners.  Charles 
seemed  quite  indifferent,  declined  to  see  the 
ladies,  and  allowed  them  to  be  escorted  to  the 
gates  of  Rome  on  December  1  by  an  escort  of 
400  cavalry.  We  learn  from  a  letter  of  the 
Ferrarese  ambassador  at  Milan  that  his  Holiness 
rode  out  to  meet  the  ladies  arrayed  in  a  black 
doublet  bordered  with  gold  brocade,  wearing 
Spanish  boots,  a  beautiful  belt  in  the  Spanish 
fashion  with  sword  and  dagger,  and  a  velvet 
biretta,  "all  very  gallant."  And  the  same 
ambassador  reports  that  the  shrewd  Ludovico 
Sforza  gravely  reproved  his  brother  Ascanio  and 
Cardinal  Sanseverino  for  surrendering  such  precious 
hostages  for  the  paltry  sum  of  3000  ducats.  The 
Pope,  he  said,  would  have  paid  fifty  thousand,  or 
more,  to  get  them  back  again  ;  but  seeing  they 
were  his  heart  and  eyes,  and  that  he  could  not 
do  without  them,  the  best  plan  would  have  been 
to  hold  them  back,  and  thereby  get  a  whip  in 
hand  to  compel  him  to  do  whatever  they  wanted. 

The  whole  of  Italy  seems  to  have  been  aware 
of  the  relationship  which  existed  between  this 
astonishing  sexagenarian  Pope  and  the  young 

111 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Giulia  Farnese.      In  1492  she  had  given  birth  to 
a  daughter,  who  was  named  Laura,  and  officially 
styled  the  daughter  of  Orsini,  though  everybody 
felt  assured  that  she  was  really  the  child  of  the 
Pope.     Giulia's  husband  was  agreeable  (or  perhaps 
compelled)  to  keep  himself  out  of  the  way  on  one 
of  the  estates  which  had  been  presented  to  him 
on   his   marriage ;     and   the   satirists    of   the    day 
blasphemously    called    Madonna    Giulia    "  Christ's 
bride."     Whether  this  beautiful  but  frivolous  and 
shameless    girl    were    attracted    by    the    magnetic 
personality  of  the  man  Rodrigo  Borgia,   whether 
she  were  fascinated  by  the  homage  of  the  Holy 
Father  before  whom  even  princes  prostrated  them- 
selves,  or  whether  she  were  a  callous  and  calcu- 
lating adventuress  who  reckoned  upon  providing 
for  herself   and   her   relations    out   of   her   lover's 
abundant     bounty,     is     altogether     a     matter     of 
conjecture.      At  any  rate,   she  made  little  secret 
of  it,  living  in  the  palace  of  S.  Maria  in  Portico 
as     lady-in-waiting     on     her     lover's     daughter, 
Lucrezia,    and    being     ready     enough     to    inform 
obsequious  courtiers  that  this,  that,  or  the  other 
benefice   had    not   been    obtained   by    the   recom- 
mendations  of  the  Vice- Chancellor   or   any   other 
dignitary,   but   solely   through   her   own   influence 
with    the    Pope.     Lorenzo  Pucci,   writing    to    his 
brother  in  Florence  in  December  1493,  speaks  of 
Laura  as  "  the  child  of  the  Pope,  the  niece  of  the 
Cardinal    [i.e.    Giulia's    brother    Alessandro],    and 
the   putative   daughter   of   Signer    Orsini  "  ;     and 
relates   how  he   had  boldly   so   designated   her   in 
112 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

course  of  a  recent  conversation  with  the  cardinal 
in  question.  In  the  same  letter  he  goes  on  to  give 
some  interesting  details  of  a  visit  he  had  paid  to 
Madonna  Giulia  at  the  palace  of  S.  Maria  in  Portico. 
He  found  her  sitting  by  the  fire  with  Madonna 
Lucrezia,  having  just  finished  washing  her  hair. 
She  received  him  very  cordially,  and  showed  him 
her  baby,  in  whose  face  he  declared  he  saw  a 
strong  family  likeness  to  the  Pope,  although  pre- 
sumably he  kept  his  thoughts  on  this  point  to 
himself  at  the  moment.  Giulia,  he  says,  has 
grown  stouter,  and  is  a  most  beautiful  creature. 
She  let  down  her  hair  and  had  it  dressed  before 
him,  sending  him  into  raptures  of  admiration ; 
for  never  had  he  seen  anything  to  compare  with 
it :  it  reached  to  her  feet,  and  shone  like  the  sun  ! 
Some  notion  of  Giulia's  style  of  beauty  may  be 
obtained  from  a  fresco  of  the  Virgin  and  Child 
by  Pinturricchio  over  the  door  of  one  of  the  rooms 
in  the  Vatican,  as  the  features  of  the  Virgin  in  this 
picture  are  traditionally  believed  to  have  been 
copied  from  those  of  Giulia  Farnese. 

Few  details  have  reached  us  concerning  the 
private  life  of  Lucrezia  Borgia  in  Rome,  for  she 
is  hardly  ever  alluded  to  in  the  despatches  of 
the  foreign  ambassadors,  who  were  far  from  being 
the  scandal-mongers  which  the  Borgian  apologists 
would  like  to  make  them  out,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
seldom  reported  to  their  masters  at  home  anything 
which  had  no  bearing  on  political  affairs.  B orchard 
rarely  mentions  her  in  his  diary,  and  when  he  does 
it  is  always  in  connection  with  some  of  the  affairs 

H  113 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

of  the  Vatican.  She  and  her  sister-in-law,  Donna 
Sancia,  who  was  only  about  a  year  older  than 
herself,  seem  to  have  held  a  splendid  court  in  the 
Vatican  and  in  their  own  palaces.  Music,  dancing, 
masquerades,  and  revels  of  all  kinds  were  the 
order  of  the  day.  Alexander  VI  was  fond  of 
having  comedies  and  ballets  performed  at  all  the 
family  festivities  in  the  Vatican  ;  and  these  repre- 
sentations were  of  a  character  that  would  now  be 
prohibited  by  the  censor  in  any  European  country. 
This,  however,  did  not  shock  the  morals  or  taste 
of  the  men  and  women  of  the  Renascence  ;  but 
old-fashioned  Catholics  were  greatly  scandalised 
to  hear  that  the  Pope  and  his  cardinals  freely 
took  part  in  all  the  festivities  in  indiscriminate 
association  with  females.  We  may  take  it  for 
granted  that  Lucrezia  and  Donna  Sancia  and 
Giulia  Farnese  entertained  and  were  entertained 
by  cultured  and  gallant  young  ecclesiastics,  such 
as  the  Cardinals  Medici,  d'Este,  Riario,  and  Farnese. 
They  were  also  doubtless  frequent  guests  at  the 
banquets  of  the  various  Roman  nobles,  as  well  as 
in  the  no  less  splendid  palaces  of  some  of  the 
wealthy  bankers  and  merchants  of  the  time.  They 
must  often  have  aroused  the  envy  as  well  as  the 
admiration  of  the  citizens  of  the  Eternal  City 
when  they  were  seen  riding  through  the  streets  to 
or  from  one  of  these  palaces  and  the  Vatican,  or 
when  they  rode  out  to  the  Campagna,  hunting  or 
hawking,  in  company  with  their  gay  and  princely 
husbands,  all  gorgeously  attired,  and  surrounded 
by  a  brilliant  cavalcade  of  equally  resplendent 
114 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

courtiers.     But  coming  troubles  had  already  begun 
to  cast  their  shadows  before. 

The  Pope  had  decided  to  dissolve  Lucrezia's 
marriage  with  Giovanni  Sforza.  That  alliance  had 
now  become  rather  an  incumbrance  than  other- 
wise ;  and  Alexander,  prompted  perhaps  by  his 
young  but  abnormally  astute  son  Cesare,  desired 
Lucrezia's  freedom  in  order  that  she  might  enter 
into  another  marriage  more  favourable  to  the 
Borgian  plans  for  family  advancement.  But 
Giovanni,  who  did  not  yet  realise  what  kind  of 
persons  it  was  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  refused 
to  agree  to  an  amicable  divorce.  Whether  or  not 
Lucrezia  wished  for  the  divorce  does  not  appear  ; 
but  at  any  rate  she  enabled  her  husband  to  escape 
from  the  vengeance  of  her  father  and  brother. 
According  to  the  chroniclers  Almerici  and  Marzetti 
of  Pesaro,  when  Cardinal  Cesare  came  to  visit 
Lucrezia  one  evening  in  Holy  Week  she  com- 
manded her  husband's  chamberlain,  Jacomino,  to 
conceal  himself  behind  a  screen  in  the  room.  The 
Cardinal  talked  very  plainly  to  his  sister,  and 
amongst  other  things  informed  her  that  the  order 
had  already  been  given  to  kill  her  husband.  As 
soon  as  he  had  departed  Lucrezia  directed 
Jacomino  to  tell  his  master  what  he  had  heard. 
Sforza  immediately  made  some  excuse  for  visiting 
the  Church  of  St.  Onofrio,  mounted  a  horse  that 
had  been  sent  there  to  await  him,  and  galloped 
off  to  his  own  territory  at  such  a  rate  that  when 
he  reached  Pesaro  after  four-and-twenty  hours' 
riding  the  exhausted  animal  dropped  dead.  Safe 

115 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

in  his  own  domain,  where  he  was  protected  by  the 
power  of  Venice,  Giovanni  continued  for  some 
months  to  resist  the  Pope's  demand  that  he  should 
voluntarily  relinquish  Lucrezia  ;  and  in  the  mean- 
time everybody's  thoughts  were  turned  in  another 
direction  by  a  terrible  and  mysterious  tragedy  in 
the  family  of  the  Borgia. 

A  day  or  two  after  the  Duke  of  Gandia  had  been 
invested  with  the  duchy  of  Benevento,  the  Pope 
appointed  Cardinal  Cesare  as  Legate  for  Naples.  It 
was  arranged  that  he  should  proceed  thither  early 
in  the  following  month  for  the  purpose  of  crowning 
the  new  king,  Ferrantino,  and  that  he  should  be 
accompanied  by  his  brother  Gandia.  On  June  14 
Vanozza  entertained  her  three  sons  together  with 
Cardinal  Juan  Borgia  and  a  number  of  other 
friends  at  a  supper  at  her  vineyard  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  S.  Pietro  in  Vincoli.  It  was  late  in 
the  evening  when  the  Duke  of  Gandia  and  Cardinal 
Cesare  mounted  their  horses  as  though  to  return 
together  to  the  Vatican.  But  when  near  the  palace 
of  Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza  the  Duke  took  leave  of 
his  brother,  saying  that  he  had  to  attend  to  some 
private  business,  and  rode  away  into  the  darkness, 
accompanied  only  by  one  groom,  and  by  an 
unknown  man  in  a  mask,  who  had  come  to  him 
at  the  feast  and  who  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
visiting  him  at  the  Vatican  during  the  past  month. 
He  was  never  seen  alive  again.  When  morning 
came,  and  the  Duke  did  not  return,  his  servants 
sent  word  to  the  Pope,  who,  though  somewhat 
disturbed,  was  well  enough  acquainted  with  his 
116 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

son's  habits  to  assume  that  he  was  engaged  in 
some  love  affair  and  could  not  leave  the  house 
in  daylight  for  fear  of  compromising  himself  or 
the  lady.  But  when  night  came  and  nothing  could 
be  heard  of  Giovanni,  Alexander  was  terrified,  and 
commanded  every  effort  to  be  made  to  discover 
his  whereabouts.  Presently  the  police  brought 
intelligence  that  they  had  found  the  missing  Duke's 
groom  lying  mortally  wounded  in  the  Piazza  degli 
Ebrei,  and  too  far  gone  to  give  any  intelligence 
about  what  had  happened  to  his  master.  Then 
the  rumour  spread  throughout  Rome  that  the 
Duke  had  been  murdered  and  his  body  thrown  into 
the  Tiber.  Inquiries  were  made  of  all  who  had 
business  on  the  river  or  who  lived  near  it ;  and  at 
length,  on  the  16th,  a  Sclavonian  charcoal  dealer 
or  timber  merchant  told  of  a  strange  scene  of 
which  he  had  been  eye-witness  on  the  night  of 
the  14th.  Whilst  keeping  watch  over  a  load  of 
timber  which  he  had  put  on  shore,  he  noticed  two 
men  emerge  from  the  alley  on  the  left-hand  side 
of  the  Sclavonian  Hospital,  who  looked  all  round 
to  see  if  the  coast  were  clear,  and  then  went  back. 
Presently  two  other  men  appeared,  and  after 
looking  about  in  the  same  manner,  made  a  signal. 
Then  there  emerged  a  man  on  a  white  horse, 
carrying  behind  him  on  the  crupper  a  dead  body, 
the  head  and  hands  of  which  were  supported  on 
the  one  side  and  the  legs  on  the  other  by  the  two 
men  whom  he  had  seen  at  first.  Coming  slowly 
to  the  place  where  rubbish  was  usually  shot,  the 
horseman  backed  towards  the  river,  and  his 

117 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

attendants  lifted  the  dead  body  and  flung  it  as 
far  as  they  could  into  the  water.  "  Have  you 
thrown  him  well  in  ?  "  inquired  the  cavalier  ;  and 
they  replied,  "  Yes,  sir."  After  this  he  turned 
his  horse's  head  to  the  river,  and  seeing  something 
black  floating  asked  what  it  was.  They  replied 
that  it  was  his  cloak,  and  then  threw  stones  upon 
it  till  it  sank.  Finally  they  all  disappeared  down 
the  alley  which  led  to  the  Hospital  of  St.  James. 
Of  course  the  man  was  asked  why  he  had  not 
instantly  reported  such  an  occurrence  to  the 
Governor ;  and  his  reply  is  illuminating  as  to  the 
law  and  order  maintained  under  the  rule  of  Pope 
Alexander  VI.  "  In  my  time,"  said  he,  "  I  have 
seen  a  hundred  dead  bodies  flung  into  the  Tiber, 
and  never  heard  of  anybody  troubling  himself 
about  them." 

The  inhabitants  of  Rome,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  were  greatly  agitated  and  alarmed. 
The  Orsini  and  the  Colonna  called  their  troops 
together ;  citizens  closed  their  shops  and  barri- 
caded their  doors  ;  for  nobody  knew  what  might 
happen  next.  Meanwhile  hundreds  of  fishermen 
were  set  to  work  with  their  nets  dragging  the  river, 
and  about  mid-day  the  body  of  the  Duke  was 
found,  near  to  S.  Maria  del  Popolo  and  close  to  a 
garden  belonging  to  Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza.  The 
hands  were  tied  together,  the  throat  had  been  cut, 
and  the  body  was  pierced  by  nine  ghastly  wounds. 
But  it  was  evidently  no  case  of  robbery,  for  not 
only  were  the  rich  and  costly  garments  intact, 
but  a  purse  containing  forty  ducats  was  found 
118 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

upon  the  corpse.  After  being  taken  to  the  Castle 
of  St.  Angelo,  and  washed  and  clothed  in  the  robes 
of  the  Gonfaloniere  of  the  Church,  the  body  of  the 
murdered  man,  on  an  open  bier,  was  carried  to 
S.  Maria  del  Popolo  to  be  buried  with  all  due 
pomp  and  ceremony  in  the  family  chapel  of  his 
mother.  The  Pope  became  nearly  frantic. 
Burchard  records  that  he  shut  himself  up  in 
his  room,  refusing  to  eat  or  drink,  weeping  and 
moaning  bitterly,  and  unable  to  obtain  a  moment's 
sleep  from  Thursday  until  Sunday.  At  length,  in 
response  to  the  urgent  and  persistent  entreaties 
of  the  Cardinal  of  Segovia  and  other  courtiers, 
he  opened  his  door.  He  had  already  given  orders 
to  the  Governor  of  the  city  to  make  a  thorough 
search  of  every  house  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber, 
including  the  palace  of  Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza  ; 
but  the  complete  failure  of  the  police  to  find 
the  slightest  clue  left  room  for  all  sorts  of  sus- 
picions and  rumours.  Some  suspected  it  to  be  a 
retaliation  on  the  part  of  the  Orsini ;  some  that  it 
was  the  work  of  Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza,  who  was 
known  to  have  had  a  violent  quarrel  with  the 
Duke  a  short  time  previously  ;  others  attributed 
it  to  Giovanni  Sforza,  actuated,  it  was  whispered, 
not  merely  by  desire  for  vengeance  on  the  Pope 
but  also  by  jealousy  of  Gandia's  reputed  incestuous 
relations  with  Lucrezia.  But,  in  addition  to  these, 
suspicion  also  rested  on  the  Duke  of  Urbino, 
Cardinal  Sanseverino,  and  Count  Antonio  Maria 
della  Mirandola,  who  had  a  beautiful  daughter,  and 
whose  palace  stood  near  the  spot  where  the  Duke 

119 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

was  thrown  into  the  river  ;  whilst  many  believed 
the  deed  to  be  the  work  of  some  unknown  jealous 
husband. 

On  June  19  the  Pope  summoned  a  Consistory, 
which  was  attended  by  all  the  cardinals  except 
Ascanio  Sforza,  and  by  the  ambassadors  of  Spain, 
Venice,  Naples,  and  Milan.  After  they  had  all 
offered  their  condolences,  he  addressed  them  in  a 
speech  in  which  he  declared  that  he  loved  the 
Duke  of  Gandia  better  than  any  one  else  in  the 
world,  that  if  he  had  seven  Papacies  he  would 
give  them  all  for  the  life  of  his  son,  that  he  knew 
not  who  was  the  murderer,  but  that  he  repudiated 
the  suspicions  which  had  been  cast  upon  his  son 
Giuffre,  his  son-in-law  Giovanni  Sforza,  the  Duke 
of  Urbino,  Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza,  and  others — 
though  it  was  remarked  as  significant  that  as 
regards  the  Orsini  he  merely  maintained  silence. 
He  regarded  the  Duke's  death  as  a  punishment 
for  his  sins  ;  and  had  resolved  to  amend  his  own 
life  and  to  reform  the  Church.  He  renounced  all 
nepotism  from  henceforth,  promised  that  benefices 
should  be  conferred  on  none  but  proper  and 
deserving  persons,  and  appointed  on  the  spot  a 
commission  of  cardinals  to  carry  out  the  necessary 
reforms.  "  Time  will  show  whether  he  is  in 
earnest,"  wrote  Cardinal  Ascanio  to  his  brother, 
Ludovico,  in  Milan  ;  and  it  was  not  long  before 
time  did  show,  for  as  soon  as  the  Commission 
produced  its  first  projects  of  reform  Alexander 
vetoed  them  on  the  ground  that  they  unduly 
restricted  the  liberty  of  the  Pope.  From  a  letter 
120 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

of  the  Florentine  ambassador,  Bracci,  we  learn 
that  four  days  after  this  Consistory  Alexander 
suddenly  abandoned  the  search  for  his  son's 
murderer,  probably,  as  this  envoy  surmises,  in 
order  to  put  the  criminals  off  their  guard  ;  but  in 
a  subsequent  despatch  some  weeks  later,  Bracci 
reports  that  the  reason  why  the  Pope  has  aban- 
doned his  investigations  is  that  he  knows  all. 

The  assassination  had  evidently  been  carefully 
planned  some  time  beforehand  ;  and  Bracci  rightly 
describes  it  as  a  masterpiece  of  craft.  Popular 
suspicion  fastened  itself  in  turn  upon  everybody 
who  could  be  surmised  to  have  any  motive  for 
the  deed  ;  but  it  was  not  until  some  nine  months 
after  that  anybody  accused  the  dead  Duke's 
brother  Cesare.  From  that  date  until  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  William 
Roscoe  ventured  to  express  a  contrary  opinion  in 
his  "  Life  and  Pontificate  of  Leo  X,"  the  young 
cardinal  was  universally  believed  to  have  been 
his  brother's  murderer.  Roscoe's  disbelief  seems 
to  have  been  founded  solely  on  the  ground  that 
after  the  event  Cesare  appeared  to  have  enjoyed 
the  continued  favour  both  of  his  father  and  of  his 
mother.  But  some  subsequent  historians  have 
given  other  reasons  for  doubting  or  disbelieving 
the  traditional  story.  Mandell  Creighton,  in  his 
"  History  of  the  Papacy,"  contends  that  the 
accusation  against  Cesare  rests  on  no  better  founda- 
tion than  the  suspicions  against  Cardinal  Ascanio, 
Giovanni  Sforza,  the  Orsini,  and  the  rest  of  them. 
He  inclines  to  think  the  Duke  probably  fell  a 

121 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

victim  to  the  jealousy  of  some  lover  or  husband 
whose  honour  had  been  attacked ;  but  finally 
concludes  that  it  is  impossible  to  express  any 
certain  opinion.  Pastor,  in  his  "  History  of 
the  Popes,"  while  admitting  that  the  amatory 
explanation  may  after  all  be  the  true  one,  alleges 
Alexander's  persistent  pursuit  of  the  Orsini  as 
evidence  that  the  Pope  believed  them  to  be  the 
murderers  of  his  son.  He  sees  no  evidence  to 
implicate  Cesare  ;  and  indorses  Knopfler's  remark 
that,  considering  the  intense  hatred  which  Cesare 
afterwards  inspired,  we  cannot  wonder  if  one 
undeserved  accusation  should  be  added  to  the 
many  which  he  so  richly  merited,  nor  that  it 
should  have  been  generally  believed. 

On  the  other  hand,  Gregorovius,  in  his  "  History 
of  the  City  of  Rome  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  brings 
in  an  unhesitating  verdict  of  guilty.  Guicciardini, 
Machiavelli,  and  all  the  principal  statesmen  and 
historians  of  the  time,  believed  Cesare  to  be  the 
murderer ;  and  although  no  one  dared  for  a  time 
to  express  the  opinion  openly,  he  finds  indications 
that  from  the  first  it  was  generally  held  in  secret. 
Moreover,  he  holds  that  the  Pope  knew,  but  that 
Alexander  had  already  fallen  so  completely  under 
the  spell  of  Cesare's  terrible  strength  of  will  that 
he  trembled  and  bowed  down  before  it.  Of  course 
it  would  be  absurd  to  look  for  such  proof  of  this 
far-off  crime  as  would  suffice  to  hang  a  man  at  the 
Old  Bailey  in  the  present  day.  But  there  are  at 
least  two  points  in  the  case  which  seem  totally 
inexplicable  on  any  other  hypothesis  than  Cesare's 
122 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

fratricide  and  the  Pope's  knowledge  of  it.  Although 
burning  for  vengeance,  and  having  given  orders 
for  the  pursuit  of  the  assassins  with  the  utmost 
rigour,  Alexander  suddenly  abandoned  all  search 
for  them  nine  days  after  the  event.  What  other 
explanation  can  be  given  of  this  inconsistency 
except  Bracci's  that  it  was  because  the  Pope  knew 
who  was  the  criminal  ?  And  if  he  knew  that  it 
was  a  Sforza  or  a  Mirandola,  an  Urbino  or  an 
Orsini,  is  it  conceivable  that  such  a  man  as  Rodrigo 
Borgia  would  have  rested  for  a  moment  until  he 
had  destroyed  the  murderer  of  his  favourite  son  ? 
The  second  point  is  scarcely  less  significant. 
Cardinal  Cesare's  name  never  appears  in  any  of  the 
proceedings  at  the  Vatican,  public  or  private,  from 
the  day  of  the  murder  until  July  22,  when  he  left 
Rome,  according  to  arrangement,  for  the  purpose 
of  crowning  Ferrantino  of  Aragon  at  Naples.  He 
exhibited  no  sign  of  that  fierce  vindictiveness 
which  flashed  out  so  terribly  on  other  occasions  ; 
neither,  on  the  other  hand,  did  he  show  any  sign 
of  a  softer  spirit ;  and  he  did  not  attend  his 
brother's  funeral.  During  those  thirty-seven  days 
he  and  the  Pope  seem  to  have  avoided  one  another  ; 
and  it  is  further  noticeable  that  when  he  returned 
from  Naples  on  September  6,  after  having  fulfilled 
his  mission  with  great  splendour  and  eclat,  the 
Pope  received  him  in  Consistory  with  strange 
and  unaccustomed  reserve,  for  Burchard  notes  in 
his  diary  that  the  father  and  son  did  not  exchange 
a  single  word. 

Not  even  the  most  thorough-going  admirers  of 

123 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Cesare  Borgia — and,  strange  to  say,  several  of 
them  have  recently  appeared — have  ventured  to 
suggest  that  he  was  incapable  of  fratricide  ;  but 
they,  as  well  as  Pastor  and  some  other  historians, 
have  argued  in  favour  of  his  innocence  in  this  case 
that,  as  the  Duke  of  Gandia's  son  would  inherit 
his  father's  title  and  possessions,  there  was  no 
"  sufficient  motive  "  impelling  his  brother  to  the 
murder.  It  would  be  too  strange  a  question  of 
casuistry  to  determine  what  might  be  considered 
a  "  sufficient  motive  "  for  fratricide  ;  but  looking 
at  the  matter  in  the  light  of  Cesare's  subsequent 
conduct  and  career  it  is  easy  enough  to  show  that, 
at  any  rate,  he  must  have  been  strongly  desirous 
of  having  the  Duke  of  Gandia  out  of  his  way. 
Cesare  had  already  determined  to  lay  aside  his 
clerical  habit  and  carve  out  a  career  for  himself 
by  arms  and  diplomacy.  But  his  elder  brother 
Giovanni  was  his  father's  favourite ;  and  the 
Pope,  who  had  an  exaggeratedly  high  opinion  of 
the  Duke's  military  talents,  intended  to  advance 
him  to  the  highest  attainable  pitch  of  secular 
greatness.  Whilst  Cesare  could  never  hope  to 
occupy  the  Papal  chair  on  account  of  the  stain 
of  his  bastardy,  the  Dukedom  of  Benevento, 
backed  by  all  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  Holy 
See,  might  easily  prove  to  be  only  a  stepping-stone 
to  the  throne  of  Naples.  After  carefully  watching 
the  conduct  of  the  campaign  against  the  Orsini, 
Cesare  can  have  felt  nothing  but  contempt  for  the 
military  abilities  of  his  brother  ;  and  yet  it  was 
perfectly  plain  to  him  that  so  long  as  this  incom- 
124 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

petent  favourite  of  the  Pope  lived,  his  own  path 
along  these  lines  was  insurmountably  barred.  We 
need  not  go  so  far  as  Charles  Yriarte  and  Louis 
Gastine,  who  contend  that  Cesare  had  already 
become  convinced  that  the  safety  of  the  Papacy, 
and  consequently  of  the  House  of  Borgia,  depended 
upon  the  instant  establishment  of  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Church.  And  their  citation  of  the 
decorative  chasings  on  his  sword  of  state  in  glori- 
fication of  the  deeds  of  his  great  Roman  namesake 
as  "  documentary  evidence  "  of  his  own  settled 
determination  to  extend  the  empire  of  the  Holy 
See  over  the  whole  of  Italy,  may  certainly  be 
dismissed  as  fanciful  and  fantastic.  But  although 
Cesare  was  only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  his  mind 
was  far  in  advance  of  his  years,  his  personal 
ambition  was  boundless,  his  tiger-like  spirit  had 
already  shown  itself  in  the  orders  given  for  the 
murder  of  his  brother-in-law  Giovanni  Sforza, 
and  what  we  know  of  his  subsequent  swift  and 
sanguinary  dealings  with  Perotto,  with  the  Duke 
of  Bisceglia,  and  with  his  own  condottiere  generals 
at  Sinigaglia,  forbids  us  to  suppose  that  he  would 
have  had  any  qualms  about  clearing  from  his 
path  by  a  violent  death  even  a  brother  who  barred 
his  way  to  "  honour  and  glory." 

Alexander's  buoyancy  of  nature  did  not  allow 
of  any  prolonged  indulgence  in  grief  even  for  the 
death  of  his  favourite  son.  All  idea  of  reform, 
either  of  the  Church  or  of  his  private  life,  was 
soon  abandoned  ;  his  old  habits  of  licentious 
living  were  resumed  ;  his  nepotism  became  more 

125 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

pronounced  than  ever ;  and  from  this  time  forward 
he  seems  to  have  fallen  more  and  more  under  the 
influence,  it  might  indeed  be  said  under  the 
complete  control,  of  his  son  Cesare.  The  Pope 
was  determined  to  have  Lucrezia  divorced  from 
Giovanni  Sforza,  but  the  Lord  of  Pesaro  still 
refused  to  submit  even  after  a  commission  presided 
over  by  two  cardinals  had  declared  the  marriage 
to  be  null  and  void  on  the  ground  that  it  had 
never  been  consummated  because  of  his  impotency. 
Giovanni  went  to  Milan  to  solicit  the  support  of 
his  powerful  relative  the  Duke ;  but  Ludovico 
Sforza,  after  making  the  humorous  suggestion 
that  Giovanni  should  submit  himself  to  a  test  of 
his  capacity  in  the  presence  of  trustworthy 
witnesses,  finally  joined  with  Cardinal  Ascanio 
in  inducing  their  kinsman  to  submit  to  the  inevit- 
able. Sforza  accordingly  declared  in  writing  that 
his  marriage  with  Lucrezia  had  never  been  con- 
summated, whereupon  on  December  20,  1497,  the 
divorce  was  formally  decreed,  and  Giovanni  re- 
quired to  return  his  wife's  dowry  of  31,000  ducats. 
But  he  took  a  terrible  revenge  ;  for  to  his  exaspera- 
tion is  due  the  foulest  of  all  the  scandals  which 
have  besmirched  the  name  of  Borgia.  He  told  his 
uncle  Ludovico  in  so  many  words  that  the  reason 
why  the  Pope  wished  to  divorce  him  from  Lucrezia 
was  the  Holy  Father's  desire  to  have  unfettered 
unnatural  relations  with  his  own  daughter. 

Unfortunately  Alexander's  conduct  had  been  so 
unexampled  and  outrageous  that  people  were 
ready  to  believe  anything  of  him ;  and  the  matter 
126 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

became  common  talk  throughout  Italy.  When 
Guicciardini  wrote  his  history  forty  years  after- 
wards he  stated  it  as  an  accepted  fact  that 
Lucrezia's  two  brothers,  Giovanni  and  Cesare, 
were  rivals  in  the  love  of  their  common  sister ; 
and  added  that  it  was  commonly  reported,  "  if 
we  ought  to  believe  so  great  an  enormity,"  that 
not  only  the  two  brothers,  but  the  Holy  Father 
himself  was  a  candidate  for  her  favours.  Early  in 
June,  before  the  murder  of  her  brother  Giovanni, 
Lucrezia  had  left  her  palace  in  Rome  and  retired 
to  the  Convent  of  S.  Sisto  on  the  Appian  Way. 
Donato  Aretino,  reporting  this  event,  which 
naturally  caused  some  speculation  in  Rome, 
remarks  that  some  people  say  she  will  turn  nun, 
whilst  others  make  statements  which  he  would 
rather  not  trust  to  a  letter.  Villari,  in  his  "  Life 
and  Times  of  Machiavelli,"  seems  to  suspect  not 
only  some  connection  between  this  dark  hint  and 
a  subsequent  report  by  some  of  the  foreign 
ambassadors  in  Rome  that  in  March  1498  Lucrezia 
gave  birth  to  an  illegitimate  child,  but  also  between 
these  two  reports  and  the  parentage  of  a  certain 
Giovanni  Borgia,  the  mysterious  "  Infans 
Romanus,"  who  must  have  been  born  somewhere 
about  that  time.  By  a  Brief  dated  September  1, 
1501,  the  Pope  legitimised  this  boy  as  the  natural 
son  of  Cardinal  Cesare  and  a  Roman  spinster ; 
but  in  a  second  Brief,  issued  immediately  after- 
wards, the  boy,  who  is  stated  to  be  about  three 
years  old,  is  acknowledged  as  the  Pope's  own  son. 
At  a  later  date  this  boy  Giovanni  appeared  at 

127 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Lucrezia's  court  at  Ferrara,  and  he  was  brought 
up  and  educated  with  her  own  son  Rodrigo. 

Amongst  those  who  had  written  to  express  their 
sympathy  with  the  Pope  on  the  occasion  of  the 
murder  of  his  son  we  find  the  name  of  Girolamo 
Savonarola.  But  the  great  Florentine  preacher 
and  religious  reformer  did  not  by  any  means  abate 
in  his  denunciations  of  the  corruption  of  the 
Church  in  general  or  of  the  notoriou<  evil  living 
of  the  Pope  in  particular.  At  first  Alexander 
seems  to  have  been  only  scornfully  amused  at  the 
infatuation  of  the  Florentines  for  a  "  chattering 
friar  "  ;  but  after  the  death  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici 
Savonarola's  influence  reached  such  a  height  that 
it  had  to  be  seriously  reckoned  with.  Like  the  old 
Hebrew  prophets,  he  claimed  to  be  divinely 
inspired ;  and  when  his  prediction  that  a  new 
Cyrus  would  overrun  Italy  without  opposition 
seemed  to  be  miraculously  fulfilled  to  the  very 
letter  by  the  expedition  of  Charles  VIII,  many 
believed  that  the  fanatical  Dominican  was  indeed 
a  man  sent  from  God.  Even  Charles  himself  seems 
to  have  been  touched  with  the  prevalent  super- 
stition, for  when  Savonarola  boldly  threatened 
him  with  the  Divine  wrath  if  he  did  not  promptly 
evacuate  Florence,  the  French  conqueror  humbled 
himself  and  departed.  In  July  1495  Alexander 
had  courteously  invited  him  to  Rome  to  explain 
his  claims  to  a  Divine  commission ;  but  the 
"  chattering  friar,"  who  was  not  so  simple  as  to 
put  his  head  into  the  wolf's  jaws,  excused  himself. 
Then,  in  September,  the  Pope  suspended  him ; 
128 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

but  the  call  of  the  Florentines  was  so  urgent  that 
in  February  1496  he  began  preaching  again. 
Nothing  like  it  had  ever  been  heard,  and  nothing 
like  it  could  have  been  expected  to  succeed,  in 
the  Cathedral  of  Florence.  He  not  only  denounced 
the  prevalent  infidelity  and  immorality,  but,  in 
the  very  heart  and  centre  of  all  the  culture  of  the 
Renascence,  he  stigmatised  the  Italian  love  of 
beauty  as  mere  lust,  and  the  whole  life  of  the 
time  as  despicable  frivolity  and  sensualism.  The 
effect  was  almost  magical.  Crowded  congregations 
were  dissolved  in  tears.  His  numerous  followers 
abandoned  festivities  and  amusements  of  all  kinds. 
Hymns  were  heard  in  every  street  in  place  of 
licentious  songs  and  carnival  choruses.  Wealthy 
women  laid  aside  their  costly  garments  and 
jewellery  to  dress  as  plainly  as  Quakers.  Roystering 
youths  became  decorous  and  devout.  The  bitterest 
enemies  became  reconciled.  Usurers  restored  their 
ill-gotten  gains.  Nor  was  this  all ;  for  after  the 
expulsion  of  the  Medici,  it  was  Savonarola  who 
drew  up  the  constitution  of  the  new  Republic 
which  was  then  formed,  so  that  the  "  chattering 
friar  "  became  in  effect  and  for  a  time  the  master 
of  the  city.  Alexander  then  changed  his  tactics, 
and  endeavoured  to  enlist  Savonarola  on  his  side 
by  the  offer  of  a  cardinal's  hat ;  but  this  the 
Dominican  proudly  rejected. 

Before  long,  however,  the  inevitable  reaction  set 
in.  A  number  of  gay  young  men,  calling  them- 
selves "  Compagnacci,"  or  bad  fellows,  desirous 
of  reviving  the  bacchanalian  revels  of  the 

I  129 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Medician  regime,  organised  a  riotous  opposition 
to  the  "  Piagnoni,"  or  snivellers,  as  they  dubbed 
the  followers  of  Savonarola.  This,  of  course,  only 
redoubled  the  energy  of  the  "  Piagnoni,"  who 
replied  by  the  famous  burning  of  "  the  vanities," 
when  books,  pictures,  statuettes,  trinkets,  carnival 
dresses,  and  a  thousand  other  condemned  treasures 
were  carried  in  procession  to  one  of  the  public 
squares  and  burned  in  huge  bonfires,  whilst  a 
solemn  dance  was  executed  around  the  sacrificial 
pyre.  The  opposition,  however,  not  only  obtained 
ascendency  in  the  Signoria,  and  ordered  the  dis- 
continuance of  Savonarola's  preaching,  but,  aided 
by  Piero  de'  Medici,  then  living  in  exile  in  Rome, 
they  induced  the  Pope  to  excommunicate  him. 
He  refused  to  recognise  the  interdict,  and  continued 
his  sermons  as  well  as  his  strenuous  exhortations 
to  Charles  VIII  and  other  European  princes  to 
summon  a  council  for  the  salvation  of  the  Church. 
Nothing  ever  alarmed  Alexander  VI  more  than  the 
threat  of  a  council ;  but  in  this  instance  his  fears 
were  allayed,  and  his  troublesome  opponent  silenced 
in  a  very  singular  manner.  A  Franciscan  monk, 
named  Francesco  di  Puglia,  in  the  course  of  a 
sermon  preached  against  Savonarola  in  the  Church 
of  Santa  Croce,  declared  himself  ready  to  go  through 
the  ordeal  of  fire  with  him  in  order  to  prove  the 
falsity  of  the  Dominican's  doctrines.  Savonarola 
himself  took  no  notice  of  the  absurd  and  antiquated 
challenge,  but  one  of  his  zealous  followers,  Fra 
Domenico  Buonvicini  of  Pescia,  eagerly  took  it 
up  and  offered  to  undergo  the  ordeal  on  behalf 
180 


DIVORCE  AND  MURDER 

of  his  master.  Francesco  di  Puglia  then  artfully 
retired,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  Savonarola 
he  had  challenged,  and  him  alone  with  whom  he 
was  willing  to  enter  the  fire ;  and  another 
Franciscan,  Fra  Giuliano  Rondinelli,  was  put 
forward  to  undergo  the  trial  with  Buonvicini. 
The  Arrabbiatti  and  the  riotous  "  Compagnacci  " 
were  determined  not  to  let  such  a  good  opportunity 
escape  them,  hoping  to  overwhelm  the  "  Piagnoni  " 
with  ridicule,  and  perhaps  even,  in  the  tumult 
which  they  could  easily  bring  about,  to  accomplish 
the  assassination  of  Savonarola. 

The  Signoria,  secretly  countenanced  by  Rome, 
made  all  arrangements  for  the  strange  contest ; 
and  on  April  17,  1498,  Savonarola,  who  had  at 
last  been  persuaded  that  his  witless  followers'  zeal 
was  due  to  inspiration  from  on  high,  marched  at 
the  head  of  a  long  procession  of  his  monks  to  the 
Piazza  in  front  of  the  palace.  The  flames  were 
kindled  in  the  presence  of  an  immense  crowd, 
many  of  whom  confidently  expected  to  see  a 
repetition  of  the  miracle  of  the  fiery  furnace 
described  in  the  Book  of  Daniel.  Savonarola 
insisted  that  his  champion  should  bear  the  Host 
with  him  when  he  entered  the  fire  ;  whereupon 
the  Franciscans,  who  were  by  no  means  eager  to 
proceed  any  further,  raised  a  cry  of  sacrilege ; 
and  in  one  way  or  another  managed  to  waste 
most  part  of  the  day  in  disputes  about  procedure, 
until  in  the  evening  a  violent  thunderstorm  came 
on,  and  the  Signoria  declared  that  the  ordeal 
could  not  take  place.  The  disappointed  crowd, 

131 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

some  furious  at  missing  an  exciting  spectacle, 
some  convinced  that  Savonarola  must  be  an 
impostor  or  he  would  have  entered  the  fire  himself 
and  confounded  his  enemies,  were  stimulated  by  the 
"  Campagnacci "  and  the  Arrabbiatti  to  attack  the 
Convent  of  S.  Marco,  many  of  the  "  Piagnoni  "  were 
killed  or  wounded  in  the  streets,  and  Savonarola, 
with  Fra  Domenico  and  some  other  of  his  prominent 
supporters,  were  thrown  into  prison.  Alexander  VI 
endeavoured  to  get  the  "  chattering  friar  "  handed 
over  to  his  tender  mercies  in  Rome,  but  the 
Signoria,  though  they  were  quite  willing  that  the 
tribunal  should  be  directed  and  presided  over 
by  emissaries  of  the  Pope,  insisted  on  the  trial 
taking  place  in  Florence.  Under  the  rack  a 
confession  was  extorted  from  Savonarola  to  the 
effect  that  his  claim  of  direct  Divine  inspiration 
had  been  a  delusion.  This  was  enough  for  the 
Apostolic  Commissioners,  who  condemned  him  and 
his  two  principal  supporters  as  heretics,  and 
sentenced  the  three  of  them  to  be  burned  to  death 
in  the  market  place  and  their  ashes  thrown  into 
the  Arno.  It  is  certainly  not  fair  to  saddle 
Alexander  VI  with  the  entire  responsibility  for 
the  ruin  and  death  of  Savonarola.  From  first  to 
last  he  despised  the  "  chattering  friar,"  but  there 
was  sufficient  danger  in  Savonarola's  persistent 
demand  for  a  council  to  make  Alexander  quite 
ready  to  lend  his  support  to  the  great  Dominican's 
enemies  ;  and  doubtless  he  sat  far  more  securely 
in  St.  Peter's  Chair  when  that  powerful  voice  that 
called  so  urgently  for  reform  was  silenced  for  ever. 
132 


CESARE  BORGIA,  DUKE  OF  ROMAGNA 

ON  April  7,  1498,  the  day  of  the  proposed  ordeal 
by  fire  which  proved  so  disastrous  to  Savonarola, 
Charles  VIII  of  France  died  suddenly  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty-eight.  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
equally  weak  but  equally  ambitious  cousin  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  who,  although  announcing  his 
accession  to  the  Pope  in  most  conciliatory  terms, 
left  little  doubt  as  to  the  aggressive  policy  he 
intended  to  pursue  by  assuming  not  only  the  title 
of  Louis  XII  of  France,  but  that  of  King  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  Two  Sicilies,  as  well  as  (by  reason 
of  his  descent  from  the  Visconti)  that  of  Duke  of 
Milan.  Alexander  VI  at  once  sent  envoys  to 
express  his  congratulations,  though  they  were 
instructed  to  point  out  at  the  same  time  that  the 
new  king  was  expected  to  make  war  on  the  Turks 
instead  of  on  Italy,  that  his  claims  on  Milan  and 
on  Naples  were  impracticable,  that  the  liberties  of 
Florence  must  be  respected  and  Pisa  restored  to 
her,  that  the  Orsini  and  the  Colonna  should  not 
be  employed  in  the  French  service,  and  that  Louis 
must  abstain  from  taking  the  banished  ex-Prefect 
Giovanni  della  Rovere  under  his  protection. 
Alexander's  policy,  always  governed  by  con- 

133 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

siderations  of  family  advancement,  seems  to  have 
been  from  this  time  forth  directed  by  the  greater 
subtlety  and  the  more  vaulting  ambition  of  his 
son.  Cesare  had  firmly  resolved  to  exchange  an 
ecclesiastical  for  a  secular  career  ;  and  already  he 
aimed  at  nothing  less  than  a  kingdom.  His  first 
scheme  was  to  marry  an  Aragonese  princess,  as  a 
step  towards  acquiring  the  throne  of  Naples, 
where,  although  Ferrantino  had  been  reinstated 
with  acclamation  after  the  expulsion  of  the  French, 
the  government  was  weak  and  threatened  both 
within  and  without.  The  Pope  accordingly  made 
proposals  for  a  double  alliance  with  the  Neapolitan 
reigning  house,  his  daughter  Lucrezia  being  sug- 
gested as  a  wife  for  Alfonso,  Duke  of  Bisceglia,  a 
natural  son  of  Alfonso  II,  whilst  Ferrantino' s 
daughter  Carlotta,  who  was  to  bring  the  princi- 
pality of  Taranto  as  a  dowry,  was  suggested  as  a 
wife  for  Cesare.  The  young  princess  shrank  from 
marrying  "  a  priest  and  the  son  of  a  priest,"  and 
her  father  refused  to  hear  of  the  match  ;  but  in 
June  Lucrezia  was  betrothed  to  Alfonso  of  Bisceglia, 
and  in  the  following  month  the  Duke,  who  was  a 
year  younger  than  Lucrezia,  came  quietly  to  Rome 
and  was  duly  married  to  the  Pope's  daughter  in 
the  Vatican.  Though  of  a  somewhat  melancholy 
cast  of  countenance,  this  youth  of  seventeen  was 
described  as  the  handsomest  lad  ever  seen  in  Rome. 
It  was  expressly  agreed  that  he  should  remain  at 
the  Papal  court  for  a  year,  and  that  Lucrezia 
should  not  be  required  to  live  in  Naples  during 
her  father's  lifetime. 
134. 


CESARE  BORGIA 

The  failure  to  bring  about  Cesare's  projected 
marriage,  however,  combined  with  some  other 
unexpected  happenings  to  bring  about  a  change 
in  the  Papal  policy.  A  sanguinary  conflict  had 
been  raging  for  some  time  between  the  Orsini  and 
the  Colonna,  until  on  April  12,  1498,  notwith- 
standing their  alliance  with  the  Conti,  the  Orsini 
suffered  a  crushing  defeat  at  Palombara.  Both 
factions  seem  then  to  have  realised  that  their 
perpetual  conflicts,  instead  of  bringing  any  advan- 
tage to  either  of  them,  only  played  into  the  hands 
of  the  Pope.  Accordingly  they  made  peace,  sealed 
their  reconciliation  by  several  intermarriages,  and 
placed  the  settlement  of  their  family  disputes  in 
the  hands  of  King  Ferrantino  of  Naples.  That 
this  was  generally  understood  as  a  menace  to  the 
Borgia  was  made  plain  by  a  set  of  verses  which 
the  Pope  one  day  found  affixed  to  the  door  of  the 
Vatican  library,  in  which  the  Colonna  and  the 
Orsini  were  exhorted  to  turn  their  now  happily 
united  forces  to  the  succour  of  their  country  by 
slaying  the  "  Bull  "  now  devastating  Ansonia  and 
flinging  his  calves  into  the  Tiber.  Meanwhile  the 
Pope  had  been  negotiating  with  Louis  XII.  Louis 
wished  to  get  rid  of  his  wife  Joanna,  who  was 
childless,  in  order  that  he  might  marry  Anne  of 
Brittany,  his  cousin's  widow,  who  might  bring 
him  children,  and  certainly  would  bring  him  the 
last  of  the  great  fiefs  not  yet  joined  to  the  French 
crown.  In  order  to  accomplish  this  purpose  it 
was  necessary  for  him  to  obtain  a  dispensation  from 
the  Pope ;  and  Alexander  of  course  seized  the 

135 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

opportunity  to  make  a  bargain  to  the  advantage 
of  himself  and  his  family.  It  mattered  not  that 
Italy  must  suffer  a  second  invasion,  and  that  both 
Naples  and  Milan  must  be  handed  over  to  a  foreign 
foe,  so  long  as  Cesare  Borgia  could  obtain  a 
dukedom  and  a  royal  bride,  whilst  Alexander  VI 
obtained  protection  against  the  enemies  who  were 
now  banding  together  against  him. 

On  August  17  Cesare  explained  to  the  cardinals 
in  a  Consistory  called  for  the  purpose  that  he  had 
never  desired  to  be  a  priest,  and  that  having 
hitherto  followed  an  irksome  ecclesiastical  career 
solely  out  of  regard  for  his  father's  wishes,  he  now 
desired  to  lay  it  down,  in  order  that  he  might  marry 
and  devote  himself  to  secular  concerns,  for  which 
he  felt  he  had  more  aptitude  as  well  as  more 
inclination.  None  of  the  subservient  cardinals 
present  raised  any  objection,  several  of  them 
perhaps  looking  forward  to  a  share  of  the  valuable 
benefices  which  Cesare  perforce  resigned  together 
with  his  red  hat.  However  this  may  be,  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Valencia,  at  any  rate,  was  not  allowed 
to  go  out  of  the  family,  but  was  soon  afterwards 
made  over  to  Cardinal  Juan  Borgia.  On  the  same 
day  the  French  king's  envoy  arrived  in  Rome  for 
the  purpose  of  conducting  Cesare  to  France  ;  the 
Pope  having  agreed  with  Louis  XII  to  send  him 
his  dispensation  for  a  divorce  on  condition  of  his 
giving  Cesare  a  dukedom  and  engaging  to  procure 
Ferrantino's  consent  to  the  ex-cardinal's  marriage 
with  Carlotta  of  Aragon. 

The  preparations  for  Cesare's  journey  were  so 
136 


CESARE  BORGIA 

elaborate  that  he  was  not  able  to  set  out  until 
October  1.  His  father  had  decked  him  out  with 
more  than  regal  splendour  and  extravagance  ;  and 
watched  him  proudly  from  a  window  of  the  Vatican 
when  he  set  out  on  his  journey,  riding  a  magnificent 
horse,  clad  in  a  costume  of  white  damask  with  a 
mantle  of  black  velvet  and  wearing  a  hat  with 
black  plumes.  He  was  accompanied  by  four  cardi- 
nals, several  young  Roman  nobles,  and  a  numerous 
retinue  scarcely  less  splendidly  equipped  than  him- 
self, for  it  is  said  that  their  magnificent  horses  were 
shod  with  silver  and  their  saddle-cloths  embroidered 
with  pearls.  Some  hundreds  of  mules  carried  his 
plate  and  other  treasure  ;  and  the  whole  repre- 
sented 200,000  ducats'  worth  of  property,  extracted 
from  the  faithful  by  more  or  less  questionable 
methods,  ostensibly  for  the  propagation  of  the 
Christian  religion.  He  embarked  at  Civita  Vecchia 
in  French  galleys  for  Marseilles,  where  he  was 
received  on  his  arrival  with  royal  honours.  At 
Avignon  he  was  welcomed  with  great  splendour 
and  apparent  cordiality  by  Cardinal  Giuliano  della 
Rovere,  for  that  wily  prelate,  seeing  no  prospect 
of  anything  but  hopeless  exile  in  continuing  his 
contest  with  the  powerful  Borgia,  had  made  his 
peace  with  Alexander  and  was  now  using  every 
endeavour  to  promote  at  the  court  of  France  the 
interests  of  his  bitterest  enemy. 

Louis  XII  was  with  the  French  camp  at  Chignon, 
where  Cesar e  made  his  formal  entry  on  December  19 
with  all  the  barbaric  splendour  of  an  Oriental 
potentate.  A  detailed  account  of  the  pageant  has 

137 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

been  preserved  in  the  Memoires  of  Brantome, 
where  may  be  found  a  list  of  the  relay  after  relay 
of  baggage  mules,  loaded  with  trunks  spread  over 
with  rich  coverings  embroidered  with  the  Borgian 
arms ;  of  the  sumptuously  caparisoned  led  horses ; 
of  the  pages  on  horseback  dressed  in  crimson 
velvet ;  of  the  guards  on  foot,  having  stripes  of 
yellow  silk  over  their  velvet  coats  ;  of  the  thirty 
gentlemen  clad  in  cloth  of  gold  and  silver ;  of  the 
kettledrums,  the  trumpeters,  the  minstrels  carrying 
instruments  of  silver  slung  on  chains  of  gold,  with 
all  the  rest  of  the  extravagant  show.  And  bring- 
ing up  the  rear  of  this  bright  host  came  the  ex- 
cardinal  himself,  mounted  on  a  large  and  stately 
horse,  superbly  caparisoned.  He  was  dressed  in 
red  satin  and  cloth  of  gold  powdered  all  over  with 
large  pearls  and  costly  diamonds.  Around  his  cap 
were  double  rows  of  jewels,  including  six  or  seven 
rubies  as  large  as  beans.  Precious  stones  glittered 
all  over  his  apparel,  and  even  his  boots  were 
covered  with  twisted  cordage  of  gold  and  bordered 
with  pearls.  Louis  XII  is  reported  to  have  re- 
garded this  absurd  and  inappropriate  display  with 
the  contempt  it  deserved  ;  but  he  received  Cesare 
with  all  outward  honour,  for  it  was  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  him  to  secure  the  adhesion  of  the 
Pope. 

Cesare  had  brought  with  him  the  papal  Bull 
authorising  Louis's  divorce  ;  and  in  return  duly 
received  his  dukedom  of  Valentinois,  with  an 
appropriate  revenue.  But  the  French  king  was 
unable  to  persuade  either  Ferrantino  of  Naples 
138 


CESARE  BORGIA 

or  the  Princess  Carlotta  herself  to  consent  to 
a  marriage  with  the  Pope's  son.  Meantime 
Alexander  VI  was  in  a  critical  position.  His 
negotiations  with  France  had  alarmed  Ludovico 
Sforza,  who,  together  with  Cardinal  Ascanio  and 
the  Colonna  faction,  made  common  cause  with 
Ferrantino  of  Naples.  Towards  the  end  of  Novem- 
ber the  Portuguese  envoys  remonstrated  strongly 
with  the  Pope  concerning  his  simony,  his  nepotism, 
and  his  French  policy,  threatening  a  council  if  the 
latter,  which  endangered  the  peace  of  Italy,  were 
persevered  in.  It  was  believed  that  Cardinal 
Ascanio  hoped,  with  the  aid  of  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  and  Ferdinand  of  Spain,  to  secure  the 
summoning  of  a  council  to  dethrone  Alexander  ; 
and  when  the  Spanish  envoys  arrived  in  Rome 
about  the  middle  of  December  and  used  much 
the  same  language  as  the  Portuguese  had  done, 
the  Pope  was  filled  with  misgivings.  He  blamed 
Louis  XII  for  failing  to  bring  about  Cesare's 
marriage  with  Carlotta  of  Aragon  ;  and  when  the 
French  king  concluded  a  treaty  with  Venice  for 
the  partition  of  Milan  in  March  1499  Alexander 
was  doubtful  whether  or  not  to  throw  in  his  lot 
with  the  other  side.  He  endeavoured  to  conciliate 
Spain  by  taking  away  Benevento  from  the  heirs 
of  the  Duke  of  Gandia  and  restoring  it  to  the 
Church,  and  by  other  reformatory  measures.  But 
when  in  May  he  received  a  letter  from  Louis  XII 
informing  him  that  in  consequence  of  the  failure 
to  secure  Carlotta  of  Aragon,  Cesare  had  been  given 
the  hand  of  Charlotte  d'Albret,  a  princess  of  the 

139 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

royal  house  of  France,  his  joy  was  unbounded. 
Rome  was  illuminated  in  celebration  of  the 
auspicious  event ;  and  the  Pope,  openly  announcing 
himself  on  the  French  side,  declared  that  the 
reigning  dynasty  in  Milan  must  be  done  away  with. 
This  was  a  final  breach  with  the  house  of  Sforza  ; 
and  Cardinal  Ascanio,  taking  all  his  movable 
treasure  with  him,  fled  from  Rome.  He  was 
followed  shortly  afterwards  by  the  Cardinals 
Colonna  and  Sanseverino,  and  also  by  Lucrezia's 
husband,  Alfonso  of  Bisceglia,  who  evidently  felt 
that  he  would  be  safer  in  his  native  land,  notwith- 
standing that  he  was  the  Pope's  son-in-law  and 
that  Lucrezia  seemed  genuinely  attached  to  him. 

As  Louis  XII  had  secured  the  neutrality  of 
Spain  by  treaty,  and  as  Florence  was  fully  occupied 
with  Pisa  and  Maximilian  with  the  Swiss,  whilst 
Ferrantino  of  Naples  thought  he  had  enough  to 
do  to  look  after  his  own  dominions,  Ludovico 
Sforza  was  left  to  face  the  French  and  Venetians 
without  a  single  ally.  In  July  1499  he  was 
attacked  simultaneously  by  the  French  from  the 
west  and  the  Venetians  from  the  east.  Fortress 
after  fortress  rapidly  fell  to  his  enemies,  either  by 
cowardice  or  by  treachery.  On  September  1,  find- 
ing his  situation  hopeless,  he  fled  to  the  Tyrol ; 
and  no  sooner  had  he  left  Milan  than  the  city 
opened  its  gates  to  the  enemy.  On  learning  the 
rapid  success  of  his  generals  Louis  XII  left  Lyons 
for  Milan  ;  and  on  October  6  he  entered  the  city 
in  triumph  as  its  rightful  duke  amidst  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  populace.  He  was  accompanied  by 
140 


CESARE  BORGIA 

the  Princes  of  Savoy,  Montferrat,  Ferrara,  and 
Mantua;  by  the  envoys  of  Genoa,  Florence,  Siena, 
Luca  and  Pisa;  by  the  Cardinals  d'Amboise  and 
Giuliano  della  Rovere,  and  by  Cesare  Borgia,  Duke 
of  Valentinois,  who  had  left  his  duchess  in  Dauphine 
whilst  he  went  on  to  push  his  fortunes  under  the 
aegis  of  the  French  king.  He  had  been  married 
to  Charlotte  d'Albret  on  May  10  quite  quietly  in 
the  Queen's  apartments  of  the  chateau  of  Blois, 
in  the  presence  of  the  King.  Nine  days  later 
he  was  solemnly  invested  with  the  order  of  St. 
Michael.  Notwithstanding  his  disappointment  of  an 
Aragonese  marriage,  Cesare  seems  to  have  exerted 
himself  to  please  his  wife,  who,  for  her  part, 
appears  to  have  become  deeply  in  love  with  the 
handsome  but  heartless  adventurer.  When  he 
left  Dauphine  for  Milan  with  Louis  XII  he  had 
lived  with  her  for  four  months  ;  and  he  never  set 
eyes  on  her  again.  Presumably  he  must  have  had 
some  correspondence  with  her,  but  not  a  letter  of 
it  has  ever  been  found. 

The  Pope  made  no  concealment  of  his  delight 
at  the  success  of  the  French  arms,  which  bade  fair 
to  turn  out  so  favourably  for  Cesare's  advance- 
ment. All  his  children  were  now  away  from  Rome. 
Donna  Sancia  had  been  banished  to  Naples  ;  and 
her  husband  Giuffre  had  been  sent  with  his  sister 
to  Spoleto,  of  which  town  her  father  had  made 
Lucrezia  regent.  In  September  he  went  to  Nepi, 
which  town  also  he  bestowed  upon  his  beloved 
daughter.  Whilst  there  her  husband  was  per- 
suaded to  return  to  her ;  and  presently  Duke 

141 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Cesare  joined  the  family  party.  It  was  probably 
at  this  time  that  the  Pope  and  his  son  took  counsel 
together  as  to  the  best  method  of  advancing 
the  family  fortunes,  and  that  it  was  agreed  upon 
that  Cesare  should  conquer  and  extirpate  the 
reigning  families  of  the  Romagna  and  weld  the 
whole  of  that  territory  into  one  principality  for 
himself.  In  return  for  the  Pope's  support,  Louis  XII 
placed  a  portion  of  his  army  at  Cesare's  disposal, 
with  the  stipulation  that  operations  should  be 
undertaken  only  against  those  families  who  had 
supported  the  cause  of  the  Sforza.  Of  course  the 
expedition  was  ostensibly  made  in  the  interests  of 
the  Church.  The  "  tyrants  "  of  the  network  of 
small  principalities  in  Romagna  and  the  Marches 
were  nominally  vicars  of  the  Church,  but  their 
relations  with  their  feudal  lord  were  of  such  a 
character  that  it  was  easy  for  any  Pope  who  was 
so  minded  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  them.  Alexander's 
pretext  was  that  the  Lords  of  Rimini,  Pesaro, 
Faenza,  Imola,  Forli,  Urbino  and  Camerino  had 
forfeited  their  estates  by  non-payment  of  tribute. 
A  Bull  to  this  effect  was  issued  in  October ;  and 
in  less  than  a  month  Cesare  started  on  his  campaign. 
At  the  head  of  an  army  which,  including  his 
French  and  Swiss  auxiliaries,  numbered  some  8000 
men,  Cesare  swooped  down  upon  Imola  and  Forli, 
which  were  held  by  Caterina  Sforza  as  regent  for 
her  son.  The  people  of  Imola  opened  their  gates 
without  any  attempt  at  defence,  and  on  December  1 
the  governor,  who  had  shut  himself  up  in  the 
fortress,  was  forced  to  capitulate  also.  The  Duke 
142 


CESARE  BORGIA 

then  turned  his  attention  to  Forli,  the  inhabitants 
of  which  likewise  offered  no  resistance ;  but  the 
amazonian  Caterina,  entrenching  herself  in  her 
citadel,  defied  Cesare  Borgia,  as  she  had  previously 
defied  the  murderers  of  her  husband  eleven  years 
previously.  Once,  in  the  course  of  a  parley,  she 
all  but  succeeded  in  entrapping  Cesare  into  the 
citadel ;  and  the  Borgia  alleged  that  one  of  her 
adherents  was  sent  to  Rome  to  poison  the  Pope  by 
means  of  an  infected  letter.  Caterina  held  out 
for  six  weeks,  but  on  January  12,  1500,  her  fortress 
was  stormed  by  the  French  troops  and  she  was 
led  away  a  prisoner.  Almost  at  the  same  moment 
Cesare  received  intelligence  of  the  death  of  his 
relative,  Cardinal  Giovanni  Borgia  the  younger. 
Giovanni  had  been  in  Cesare's  camp  a  few  days 
previously,  and  had  ridden  as  far  as  Urbino  on  his 
way  to  Rome  when  he  heard  of  the  Duke's  success, 
and.  although  then  suffering  from  fever,  mounted 
his  mule  in  order  to  return  and  offer  his  congratula- 
tions in  person.  But  the  hand  of  death  was  upon 
him  and  before  he  could  get  beyond  Fossombrone 
he  expired.  He  had  been  at  variance  with  his 
powerful  relatives  ;  and  at  a  later  date,  when  the 
deadly  danger  of  the  Borgian  enmity  became  more 
apparent,  Cesare  was  suspected  of  having  poisoned 
him.  But  this  rumour  seems  to  have  had  no 
good  foundation.  The  dead  cardinal's  remains 
were  carried  to  Rome  and  interred  with  little 
ceremony  in  S.  Maria  del  Popolo,  whilst  his  benefices, 
of  course,  were  promptly  transferred  to  another 
member  of  the  family. 

143 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Cesare,  being  now  master  of  Cesena,  Imola  and 
Forli,  was  in  a  good  strategical  position  for  pur- 
suing his  conquests,  and  was  preparing  to  proceed 
against  Pesaro  when  his  campaign  received  an 
unexpected  check.  Machiavelli  aptly  remarks  that 
people  change  their  prince  in  the  hope  of  bettering 
their  condition,  but  that  in  this  they  are  most 
commonly  disappointed,  because  the  new  prince 
is  obliged  to  quarter  his  army  on  them,  to  tax 
them,  and  to  make  them  suffer  a  thousand  incon- 
veniences which  are  the  natural  results  of  conquest. 
And  he  points  out  that  this  is  why  Louis  XII  so 
quickly  subdued  Milan,  and  lost  it  again  as  quickly. 
The  people  who  had  so  readily  opened  their  gates 
to  him  were  very  soon  greatly  angered  by  the 
rapacity  of  the  French  governor  Trivulzio,  they 
could  not  brook  the  foreigner's  haughtiness,  and 
finding  themselves  deceived  in  their  hopes  of  a 
better  condition  they  revolted,  and  recalled  their 
banished  Duke  Ludovico,  who  on  February  5, 
1500,  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  Swiss  and  German 
mercenaries,  re-entered  Milan.  Ludovico  imme- 
diately attacked  the  French  forces  in  Lombardy  ; 
and  as  a  consequence  the  troops  which  Louis  XII 
had  lent  to  Cesare  Borgia  were  suddenly  recalled. 
Without  their  assistance  it  was  impossible  for  him 
to  continue  his  campaign ;  and  accordingly  he 
returned  to  Rome. 

His  entry  into  the  Eternal  City  on  February  26 
was  made  with  extravagant  pomp  and  magnificence. 
He  was  met  by  all  the  cardinals,  the  foreign 
ambassadors,  the  nobility,  and  the  magistrates  of 
144 


CESARE  BORGIA 

Rome.  Preceded  by  gorgeous  heralds,  and  sur- 
rounded by  a  bodyguard  of  Gascons  dressed  in 
black,  the  Duke  rode  through  the  crowded  streets 
to  the  Vatican,  simply  but  strikingly  attired  in 
black  velvet,  with  a  gold  chain  of  curious  workman- 
ship around  his  neck.  Kneeling  before  the  Papal 
throne  he  made  a  short  speech  in  Spanish,  rendering 
thanks  for  the  honours  and  favours  bestowed  upon 
him,  and  expressing  his  devotion  to  the  Holy  See  ; 
to  which  the  Pope  briefly  replied  in  the  same 
language.  Alexander  gave  no  more  audiences  that 
day,  and  seemed  beside  himself  with  joy,  weeping 
and  laughing  at  the  same  moment.  Next  day  a 
masque  of  the  triumph  of  Julius  Caesar  was  repre- 
sented in  the  Piazzo  Navona,  with  twelve  gorgeous 
cars  decorated  after  the  manner  of  the  ancients, 
in  which,  amongst  other  trophies,  appeared  the 
amazonian  Caterina  Sforza,  like  another  Queen  of 
Palmyra,  fettered  with  chains  of  gold.  The  triumph 
over,  Caterina  was  cast  into  one  of  the  dungeons  of 
St.  Angelo,  where  her  days  would  soon  have  been 
numbered  had  not  the  French,  who  admired  the 
courageous  virago's  defence  of  Forli,  secured  her 
release,  and  enabled  her  to  find  asylum  in  one  of 
the  convents  of  Florence. 

At  twenty-five  years  of  age  Cesare  Borgia  had 
become  the  most  influential  man  in  the  Papal  domi- 
nions. On  March  29  the  Pope  made  him  Standard 
Bearer  of  the  Church  (an  office  that  had  been  filled 
by  his  murdered  brother  Giovanni),  and  conferred 
upon  him  the  coveted  distinction  of  the  Golden  Rose. 
All  the  fortresses  of  the  Holy  See  were  placed  in 

K  145 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

the  hands  of  his  retainers  ;  and  it  was  currently 
reported  that  even  in  such  a  matter  as  the  nomina- 
tion of  cardinals  the  voice  of  the  Duke  of  Valentinois 
would  overrule  every  other.  His  portrait  by 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  now  in  the  Museo  Civico  at 
Venice  (if  indeed  it  be  his  portrait),  bears  out  the 
tradition  that  he  was  the  handsomest  man  of  his 
time.  He  was  of  graceful  and  dignified  carriage, 
and  an  athlete  of  herculean  strength.  He  pro- 
fessed an  interest  in  art,  in  literature  and  in  music. 
His  speech  was  eloquent  and  persuasive  ;  his  gaiety 
of  spirit,  at  least  in  his  earlier  days,  unfailing  and 
contagious  ;  his  way  of  life  liberal  and  magnificent 
to  extravagance.  But  all  these  superficially  attrac- 
tive qualities  were  governed  and  held  in  strictest 
subordination  by  an  iron  will,  a  cool  and  penetrating 
intellect,  and  a  fixed  conviction  that  he,  the  super- 
man, was  justified  in  adopting  any  means  for  the 
attainment  of  his  own  personal  ends.  Machiavelli 
in  his  Principe  did  not  exaggerate,  but  merely 
codified  and  set  down  in  black  and  white  the 
principles  of  Cesare  Borgia's  consistent  practice. 

He  had  not  long  to  wait  before  another  of  the 
rapid  and  tragic  changes  of  fortune  with  which 
the  history  of  the  time  is  filled  opened  the  way  for 
further  exploits  in  the  Romagna.  Two  months 
after  his  triumphant  return  to  Milan,  Ludovico 
Sforza,  betrayed  by  his  own  captains,  and  defeated 
by  a  fresh  army  under  La  Tremouille  which 
Louis  XII  had  instantly  despatched  against  him 
from  France,  was  captured  as  he  was  endeavouring 
to  escape  disguised  as  a  common  soldier  in  the 
146 


CESARE  BORGIA 

ranks  of  his  Swiss  auxiliaries,  and  carried  away 
a  prisoner  into  France.  When  he  was  conducted 
to  Lyons,  where  Louis  XII  was  at  the  time,  says 
Guicciardini,  an  infinite  number  of  spectators 
flocked  from  all  parts  to  behold  a  prince,  so  lately 
at  the  height  of  grandeur  and  majesty,  now  fallen 
into  the  most  abject  misery,  and  not  able  to  obtain 
the  favour,  though  he  earnestly  desired  it,  of  being 
admitted  to  the  King's  presence.  This  handsome 
and  cultured  prince,  "  the  Pericles  of  Milan,"  who 
from  mere  lust  of  power  had  dispossessed  (and 
perhaps  murdered)  his  nephew,  and  who,  from  the 
necessity  of  buttressing  his  own  usurped  dominion, 
had  been  the  first  to  invite  the  French  into  Italy, 
was  now  thrown  into  a  gloomy  dungeon  in  the 
fortress  of  Loches  in  Touraine,  where  he  was  left 
to  pine  away  in  dismal  solitude  the  remaining  ten 
years  of  his  chequered  life.  His  brother,  Cardinal 
Ascanio,  also  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French,  and 
was  imprisoned  at  Bourges,  where  he  remained 
until  January  1502.  He  never  saw  Rome  again 
during  the  lifetime  of  Alexander  VI ;  but  he  went 
thither  in  1503  to  assist  in  the  election,  as  it  was 
hoped,  of  Cardinal  d'Amboise  ;  and  he  died  there 
of  the  plague  in  May  1505. 

Whilst  Cesare  Borgia  was  possessing  himself  of 
Imola  and  Forli,  the  Pope  had  not  remained  idle. 
One  of  his  favourite  schemes  from  the  first  had 
been  to  seize  the  hereditary  possessions  of  the 
Roman  barons  and  settle  them  on  his  own  children. 
He  now  turned  on  the  Gaetani.  The  head  of  this 
ancient  family  was  the  prothonotary  Giacomo, 

147 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

whom  Alexander  succeeded  in  luring  to  Rome, 
when  he  was  instantly  cast  into  the  Castle  of 
St.  Angelo  whilst  the  Papal  forces  took  possession 
of  Sermoneta,  the  central  town  of  the  Gaetani 
domains  in  the  Campagna.  The  estates  of  the 
family  were  then  declared  to  be  confiscated  by 
rebellion  ;  and  the  town  of  Sermoneta  was  con- 
ferred on  the  beloved  daughter  Lucrezia,  who  was 
already  mistress  of  Nepi  and  Spoleto.  Shortly 
afterwards  Giacomo  Gaetani  died  in  his  prison,  and 
it  was  currently  reported  that  he  had  been  poisoned. 
About  this  time  the  Pope  himself  had  more  than 
one  narrow  escape  from  death.  In  the  spring  he 
had  had  an  attack  of  fever,  which  was  dangerous 
enough  to  cause  a  report  of  his  death  and  the 
appearance  of  a  savage  Latin  satire  in  which  his 
Holiness  was  represented  as  holding  a  dialogue 
with  the  King  of  Terrors,  and  begging  to  be  allowed 
to  die  in  the  arms  of  one  of  his  concubines.  On 
June  28  a  heavy  iron  chandelier  fell  to  the  floor 
just  in  front  of  him  ;  and  on  the  following  day  a 
more  serious  accident  happened.  On  the  feast  of 
SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  just  as  the  Pope  was  about  to 
give  audience,  a  sudden  tornado  tore  off  part  of 
the  roof  of  the  building,  and  blew  down  a  chimney 
which  crashed  through  to  the  room  in  which  his  Holi- 
ness was  sitting.  Three  gentlemen-in-waiting  were 
killed,  and  it  was  thought  for  some  little  time  that 
the  Pope  must  have  suffered  the  same  fate.  When 
at  length  however,  a  way  was  made  through  the 
dust  and  debris,  Alexander  was  found  still  sitting 
on  his  throne,  unconscious  and  bleeding  from  the 
148 


CESARE  BORGIA 

head  and  the  right  hand,  but  not  dangerously 
injured.  The  balcony  over  his  head  had  protected 
him  from  the  falling  masonry,  and  the  hangings 
of  his  throne  had  saved  him  from  suffocation  by 
the  sub  equent  dust.  He  soon  recovered  from  his 
wounds  and  the  shock,  and  two  days  afterwards 
went  to  the  Church  of  S.  Maria  del  Popolo  to  offer 
his  thanks,  together  with  three  hundred  crowns,  to 
the  Virgin,  under  whose  special  protection  he 
believed  himself  always  to  be.  "  Any  other  man," 
says  the  Catholic  historian  Pastor,  "  would  have 
been  led  by  such  a  series  of  narrow  escapes  to 
look  into  himself  and  consider  his  ways ;  but 
Alexander  was  a  true  Borgia  ;  he  thanked  God 
and  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  SS.  Peter  and  Paul 
for  preserving  him,  and  went  on  living  just  the 
same  as  before."  A  few  months  later  the  Venetian 
ambassador  remarked  in  one  of  his  letters  to  the 
Signoria  that,  although  seventy  years  of  age,  the 
Pope  seemed  to  grow  younger  every  day,  that  he 
was  always  merry  and  careless,  and  troubled  about 
nothing  in  the  world  but  the  aggrandisement  of 
his  children. 

All  the  Pope's  family  came  to  Rome  for  the 
Jubilee.  Lucrezia  had  returned  thither  from  Nepi 
in  the  previous  October  ;  and  on  November  1  she 
had  given  birth  to  a  son,  who  was  named,  after  his 
grandfather,  Rodrigo.  Her  young  husband,  to 
whom  she  appears  to  have  been  sincerely  attached, 
was  with  her,  having  been  to  all  appearance 
reconciled  with  his  shifty  father-in-law.  It  was 
observed  by  the  wondering  crowds  of  pilgrims,  who 

149 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

filled  the  Eternal  City  and  the  Pope's  coffers  at 
the  same  time  during  this  year  of  Jubilee,  that 
bishops  only  were  allowed  to  celebrate  Mass  to 
Madonna  Lucrezia,  bishops  waited  on  her  in  the 
Vatican,  bishops  conducted  her  from  place  to 
place.  Whenever  she  appeared  abroad  it  was  in 
royal  state,  attended  by  no  less  than  two  hundred 
ladies  and  gentlemen  on  horseback.  But  in  the 
midst  of  all  this  splendour  and  happiness  came  a 
bolt  from  the  blue.  On  the  night  of  July  15,  as 
he  was  leaving  the  Vatican  to  return  home,  the 
Duke  of  Bisceglia  was  attacked  by  a  number  of 
masked  men  with  daggers  on  the  very  steps  of  the 
Pope's  palace,  who  wounded  him  severely  in  various 
parts  of  his  body  before  he  succeeded  in  escaping 
from  them.  The  assassins  made  off  under  the 
escort  of  a  body  of  forty  horsemen,  and  got  safely 
out  of  the  city,  whilst  the  wounded  prince  staggered 
back  into  the  Vatican.  He  refused  all  medical 
help,  because,  as  he  wrote  to  the  King  of  Naples, 
his  own  physician  had  endeavoured  to  poison  him  ; 
but  Lucrezia  and  his  sister  Sancia  took  him  in 
charge,  and  he  was  nursed  back  to  convalescence. 
The  Venetian  ambassador  reported  that  it  was  not 
known  who  had  wounded  the  Duke,  but  it  was 
believed  to  be  the  same  hand  that  had  murdered 
the  Duke  of  Gandia.  Alfonso  himself  was  con- 
vinced that  it  was  the  doing  of  his  terrible  brother- 
in-law  Cesare,  and  he  burned  for  revenge.  There 
is  no  positive  proof  that  Cesare  had  had  any  hand 
in  the  matter  so  far,  though  it  is  highly  probable 
that  he  knew  well  enough  what  was  afoot.  He  hated 
150 


CESARE  BORGIA 

the  whole  House  of  Aragon,  and  had  been  specially 
angered  against  Alfonso  of  Bisceglia.  Lucrezia's 
marriage  with  this  youth  had  been  arranged  merely 
to  further  his  own  designs  on  the  Neapolitan 
crown,  and  was  now  as  valueless  as  her  previous 
alliance  with  the  Lord  of  Pesaro.  It  would  be 
extremely  useful  to  have  her  free  to  enter  into 
another  matrimonial  engagement  more  advantage- 
ous to  his  present  projects.  But  Alfonso  could  not 
be  set  aside  in  the  way  Giovanni  Sforza  had  been, 
because  Lucrezia  had  already  borne  him  a  son  ; 
and  according  to  the  Borgian  logic  it  followed  that 
he  must  be  got  rid  of  by  some  other  means. 

As  to  what  happened  afterwards  there  are  two 
discrepant  and,  as  regards  details,  flatly  contra- 
dictory accounts.  According  to  the  one  story, 
Cesare  having  visited  the  wounded  man  and  found 
that  he  bade  fair  to  make  a  good  recovery,  called 
in  his  trusted  henchman,  Don  Michelotto,  thrust 
the  two  princesses  out  of  the  room,  and  had  the 
Duke  strangled  in  his  bed.  According  to  the  other, 
and  more  likely  story,  Alfonso  was  looking  out  of 
his  chamber  window  one  day,  when,  seeing  Cesare 
walking  in  the  Vatican  garden,  he  seized  hold  of  a 
bow  and  discharged  an  arrow  at  the  hated  enemy 
whom  he  believed  responsible  for  the  recent  attempt 
on  his  own  life.  But  the  bolt  missed,  and  Cesare 
immediately  sent  some  of  his  bodyguard  to  cut 
the  Duke  in  pieces.  The  essential  fact,  however, 
is  undisputed.  On  August  18  the  Duke  of  Bisceglia 
was  murdered  ;  and  Cesare  Borgia  openly  acknow- 
ledged the  authorship  of  the  deed,  alleging  that  he 

151 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

merely  acted  in  self-defence,  because  Bisceglia  had 
endeavoured  to  kill  him.  The  Pope  evidently 
wished  to  hush  up  the  whole  matter  ;  and  when 
Lucrezia  was  found  unable  to  control  her  grief,  she 
was  sent  away  by  Cesare's  desire  to  recover  her 
equanimity  in  the  quiet  city  of  Nepi. 

Meanwhile  Cesare,  who  had  taken  his  father's 
recent  narrow  escapes  from  death  as  a  warning 
to  put  his  own  affairs  in  order,  set  about  making 
the  necessary  preparations  for  the  prosecution  of 
his  projects  in  the  Romagna.  Venice  was  induced 
to  withdraw  its  protection  from  Rimini  and  Faenza 
in  return  for  promise  of  Papal  aid  against  the 
Turks.  And  in  order  to  provide  the  necessary 
money  twelve  new  cardinals  were  created,  in- 
cluding two  Borgia,  four  other  Spaniards,  and 
Cesare's  brother-in-law  Amadeo  d'Albret,  who 
altogether  contributed  120,000  ducats  to  his  war- 
chest  in  exchange  for  their  red  hats.  By  the  end 
of  September  he  was  ready,  and  on  October  1  he 
set  out  from  Rome  at  the  head  of  10,000  men.  His 
army  was  mainly  composed  of  bands  of  mercenaries, 
including  the  troops  of  Gianpaolo  Baglioni  of 
Perugia,  Vitellozzo  Vitelli  of  Cita  di  Castello,  and 
several  barons  of  the  Savelli  and  Orsini  families. 
The  first  place  to  be  attacked  was  Pesaro,  the 
domain  of  his  sometime  brother-in-law  Giovanni 
Sforza.  Being  hopeless  of  defending  his  hereditary 
possessions  against  such  overwhelming  odds, 
Giovanni  sought  safety  in  flight ;  and  as  soon  as 
Cesare  had  thus  taken  possession  of  Pesaro  without 
striking  a  blow,  he  proceeded  along  the  coast  to 
152 


CESARE  BORGIA 

Rimini.  Pandolfo  Malatesta  likewise  took  to  flight 
without  making  any  attempt  to  defend  himself  ; 
and,  having  left  a  sufficient  garrison  in  both  places, 
Cesare  marched  his  force  against  Faenza.  This 
small  place  gave  him  rather  more  trouble,  for  its 
ruler,  Astorre  Manfredi,  a  handsome  and  amiable 
youth  of  eighteen,  was  beloved  by  his  subjects, 
who  defended  their  town  with  such  bravery  and 
resolution  that  on  the  approach  of  winter  Cesare 
was  compelled  to  raise  the  siege.  In  the  following 
March,  however,  he  returned  to  the  attack  ;  and 
on  April  25,  1501,  the  brave  defenders  were  com- 
pelled by  hunger  to  surrender.  According  to  the 
terms  of  capitulation  the  persons  and  effects  of  the 
citizens  were  to  be  respected,  and  young  Astorre 
Manfredi  left  free  to  go  where  he  pleased  un- 
molested. But  young  Astorre  Manfredi  was  be- 
loved by  his  people,  favoured  by  both  Venice  and 
Florence,  and  supported  by  his  relatives  the 
Bentivogli  of  Bologna.  Consequently  he  was  too 
dangerous  a  claimant  to  leave  at  large  ;  and  in 
spite  of  the  capitulations  he  was  never  allowed 
to  leave  Cesare's  camp  until  he  was  sent  under  a 
guard  to  Rome  to  be  thrown  into  the  Castle  of 
St.  Angelo.  A  wise  and  prudent  conqueror,  says 
Machiavelli,  having  Cesare  Borgia  in  his  eye,  destroys 
the  ruling  families  whom  he  dispossesses.  There- 
fore we  need  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  some 
few  months  afterwards  the  strangled  remains  of 
young  Astorre  and  his  brother  Octavian  were  found 
floating  in  the  Tiber. 

The  family  of  Bentivoglio  was  the  next  to  be 

153 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

attacked  ;  not  only  because  Giovanni  Bentivoglio 
had  given  some  assistance  to  his  young  relative 
Manfredi  in  the  defence  of  Faenza,  but  also  because 
Cesare  had  set  hungry  eyes  upon  Bologna  as  a 
suitable  capital  for  the  extensive  principality  he 
was  carving  out  for  himself  in  the  Romagna. 
Bologna,  however,  was  under  the  express  protection 
of  France,  and  Louis  XII  sent  orders  to  Cesare 
not  to  attack  the  place.  The  Pope  then  inter- 
vened with  the  plea  that,  according  to  treaty, 
Bologna  was  entitled  to  French  protection  only 
so  far  as  that  did  not  infringe  upon  the  rights  of 
the  Holy  See.  Not  knowing  what  might  not  be 
made  out  of  this  point  by  the  subtle  Borgia, 
Giovanni  Bentivoglio  was  glad  to  compromise  the 
matter  by  giving  up  Castel  Bolognese  to  the 
Church  and  agreeing  to  supply  Cesare  with  300 
horsemen  for  a  period  of  five  years.  Cesare  having 
thus  made  himself  lord  of  a  large  territory  which 
included  the  cities  of  Imola,  Forli,  Pesaro,  Rimini, 
Faenza,  Cesena  and  Fano,  the  Pope,  in  open 
Consistory,  created  him  Duke  of  Romagna,  ap- 
parently untroubled  in  conscience,  as  Gregorovius 
remarks,  by  any  such  consideration  as  that  the 
making  of  this  large  province  hereditary  in  the 
Borgian  family  would  necessarily  entail  the  sever- 
ance of  all  its  component  states  from  the  Church. 

But  Cesare's  ambition  was  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  the  Romagna.  As  soon  as  he  was  prohibited 
from  attacking  Bologna  he  turned  his  attention  to 
Tuscany  ;  and  having  seized  upon  Bessighella,  the 
key  of  the  Val  di  Lamone,  he  sent  a  messenger  to 
154 


CESARE  BORGIA 

the  Signoria  of  Florence  informing  them  that  he 
was  leading  his  troops  back  to  Rome,  and  demand- 
ing in  no  very  civil  terms  a  free  passage  through 
the  territories  of  the  Republic.  The  Florentines, 
knowing  with  whom  they  had  to  deal,  and  being 
exhausted  by  their  war  with  Pisa,  were  in  great 
alarm,  especially  as  some  of  Cesare's  captains,  the 
Orsini  and  Vitelli,  were  partisans  of  the  threatening 
Medici.  They  sent  an  envoy  to  treat  with  the 
Duke  of  Romagna,  but  also  at  the  same  time  sent 
off  post  haste  to  implore  the  assistance  of  Louis  XII. 
After  some  temporising,  Cesare  received  permission 
to  pass  through  the  territories  of  the  Republic, 
but  only  with  small  bodies  of  troops  at  a  time,  and 
without  either  the  Orsini  or  the  Vitelli.  Cesare 
haughtily  marched  on,  unheeding  the  conditions 
and  allowing  his  soldiers  to  pillage  as  they  went ; 
until,  seeing  there  was  danger  of  a  general  rising 
against  him,  and  knowing  well  enough  that 
Louis  XII,  whose  aids  were  already  on  the  way, 
would  not  allow  him  to 'attack  Florence,  he  sent 
word  to  the  Signoria  that  he  desired  to  be  on 
terms  of  friendship  with  them,  and  would  even 
accept  an  engagement  as  condottiere  in  their  pay, 
provided  they  allowed  him  free  passage  in  his 
present  expedition  against  Piombino,  and  that  they 
consented  to  the  recall  of  Piero  de5  Medici.  The 
restoration  of  the  Medici  was  altogether  out  of  the 
question,  as  they  told  him  plainly,  but  as  the 
Florentines  could  not  get  rid  of  the  menacing  Duke 
otherwise,  they  made  a  treaty  of  perpetual  alliance 
with  him,  and  engaged  him  as  their  condottiere 

155 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

for  three  years  at  a  salary  of  36,000  ducats.  It 
was  stipulated  that  he  was  always  to  be  ready 
to  bring  300  men-at-arms  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Republic  in  an  emergency,  but  three  months'  notice 
was  to  be  given  of  any  other  services  that  were  re- 
quired, in  which  latter  cases  he  was  not  bound  to 
come  in  person,  though  he  might  be  obliged  to  accom- 
pany the  French  expedition  against  Naples.  This  was 
undoubtedly  a  sharper's  agreement  on  both  sides. 
The  Florentines  being  under  obligation  to  furnish 
men-at-arms  for  the  French  king,  thought  that  if 
they  were  forced  to  pay  Cesare  this  money  it 
might  serve  both  purposes  ;  whilst  Cesare,  on  his 
part,  knowing  that  he  would  have  to  go  with  the 
French  in  any  case,  was  glad  to  make  the  Floren- 
tines answerable  for  the  cost.  Moreover,  whilst 
the  Florentines  agreed  to  pay  Cesare  36,000  ducats 
a  year  in  order  to  get  rid  of  his  awkward  presence 
at  the  moment,  they  counted  upon  finding  some 
means  of  avoiding  the  payment ;  and  although 
Cesare  was  well  aware  of  this,  he  was  quite  satisfied 
with  the  agreement,  because  a  failure  to  pay 
would  afford  him  an  excellent  excuse  for  further 
aggressive  action  in  Tuscany  whenever  a  favourable 
opportunity  presented  itself.  He  therefore  con- 
tinued his  march  to  Piombino.  But  before  he 
had  succeeded  in  reducing  Jacopo  Appiano  to 
subjection  the  Pope  recalled  him  to  Rome. 

The  French  army  under  d'Aubigny  was  already 
encamped  in  the  neighbourhood  when  the  envoys 
of  France  and  Spain  made  the  Pope  acquainted 
for  the  first  time  with  a  treaty  which  their  respec- 
156 


CESARE  BORGIA 

tive  masters  had  made  secretly  in  the  preceding 
November  for  the  partition  of  the  kingdom  of 
Naples.  The  "  Catholic "  Ferdinand  and  the 
"  most  Christian  "  Louis  XII  had  not  failed  to 
find  a  religious  pretext  for  their  act  of  robbery.  It 
was  alleged  that  Ferrantino  had  invited  the  Turks 
to  Italy  to  assist  him  against  his  enemies;  and 
Alexander  VI,  who  undoubtedly  had  invited  the 
Turks  to  Italy  to  assist  him  against  his  enemies  in 
1494,  now,  on  this  ground,  proclaimed  Ferrantino 
deposed  as  a  traitor  to  his  country,  and  agreed  to 
the  partition  of  that  country  between  two  hungry 
foreign  foes.  Ferdinand  was  to  have  Calabria  and 
Apulia  with  the  title  of  Grand  Duke,  whilst 
Louis  XII  was  to  have  the  capital  and  the  rest  of 
the  provinces  with  the  title  of  King  of  Naples  ; 
both  monarchs  promising  to  take  an  oath  of 
vassalage  to  the  Holy  See.  In  thus  abandoning 
the  traditional  policy  of  Rome,  Alexander  VI,  of 
course,  was  actuated  as  usual  by  family  and 
personal  considerations.  In  the  first  place,  the 
alliance  between  France  and  Spain,  and  the  depo- 
sition of  Ferrantino,  would  deprive  the  Roman 
barons  of  all  external  support,  and  place  the 
estates  of  the  Colonna,  in  particular,  at  his  mercy. 
And,  in  the  second  place,  he  shrewdly  counted  on 
the  quarrels  which  would  inevitably  arise  when 
two  jealous  powers  had  divided  the  Aragonese 
dominions  between  them  to  bring  about  such  a 
condition  of  things  as  might  fulfil  his  long-cherished 
dream  of  placing  one  of  his  sons  on  the  throne  of 
Naples. 

157 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

After  the  Pope  had  entertained  d'Aubigny, 
d'Allegres,  and  the  other  generals  with  great 
hospitality,  including  the  provision  of  a  liberal 
number  of  Roman  courtesans,  the  French  army 
set  out  for  the  conquest  of  Naples  on  June  28, 
accompanied  by  the  Duke  of  Romagna  with  300 
lances  as  well  as  by  several  bodies  of  his  mercenary 
troops  under  Vitelozzo  Vitelli,  Oliverotto  da  Fermo, 
and  other  condottiere  in  his  pay.  Ferrantino,  in 
ignorance  of  the  secret  treaty,  had  counted  upon 
the  support  of  Spain  ;  but  as  soon  as  the  French 
troops  appeared  on  his  frontier  the  Spanish  general, 
Gonsalvo  de  Cordova,  threw  off  his  mask,  and 
Ferrantino  found  himself  between  two  fires.  Leav- 
ing Prospero  Colonna  in  command  at  Naples,  he 
then  retired  to  Capua,  which  was  held  for  him  by 
Fabrizzio  Colonna.  But  on  July  24  that  city  was 
stormed  and  taken  by  the  French,  who  sacked  the 
place  and  butchered  the  inhabitants  with  the 
greatest  brutality.  Seven  thousand  persons  were 
slain ;  and  Guicciardini  declares  that  even  the 
cloistered  virgins  were  sacrificed  to  the  lust  or 
avarice  of  the  brutal  soldiery.  Some,  in  despair, 
threw  themselves  into  the  river  and  were  drowned  ; 
but  many  were  outraged  and  many  were  after- 
wards sold  into  ignominious  slavery  in  Rome.  On 
August  19  the  French  entered  Naples,  and  Ferran- 
tino, who  had  fled  to  Ischia,  surrendered  to 
Louis  XII.  Such  was  the  end  of  the  Aragonese 
dynasty  in  Naples.  Ferrantino  accepted  the  duchy 
of  Anjou  with  an  annual  pension  of  30,000  ducats. 
He  died  at  Tours  on  September  9,  1504 ;  and  with 
158 


CESARE  BORGIA 

the  death  of  his  sons  soon  afterwards  the  Neapolitan 
house  of  Aragon  became  extinct. 

The  Pope  did  not  wait  for  the  fall  of  Naples 
before  commencing  to  plunder  the  families  of 
Colonna  and  Savelli.  In  anticipation  of  the  coming 
storm,  the  Colonna  tried  to  shelter  themselves  by 
giving  up  the  keys  of  their  fortresses  to  the  College 
of  Cardinals  ;  but  Alexander  would  not  hear  of 
this,  and  insisted  on  their  being  delivered  to  him. 
Amongst  these  places  was  the  rich  Abbey  of 
Subiacco,  which  Cardinal  Colonna  had  received  as 
the  price  of  his  vote  at  Alexander's  election.  As 
early  as  June  23  twenty  vassals  of  the  family  came 
to  Rome  to  swear  fealty  to  the  Pope,  each  one 
receiving  in  return  a  gold  ducat  and  a  pair  of 
stockings.  Immediately  after  the  fall  of  Capua 
Alexander  went  in  person  to  inspect  the  garrisons 
he  had  placed  in  some  of  these  fortresses,  and  to 
visit  Sermoneta.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  he 
committed  what  even  his  apologists  are  bound  to 
admit  was  a  scandalous  and  unheard  of  breach  of 
decorum  by  appointing  his  daughter  Lucrezia 
regent  during  his  absence,  with  power  to  open  all 
his  correspondence  and  attend  to  all  the  business 
of  the  Vatican.  The  spectacle  of  a  young  and 
beautiful  woman,  the  acknowledged  daughter  of 
the  Holy  Father,  presiding  over  the  cardinals  in 
Consistory,  shows  us  more  convincingly  than  a 
thousand  satires,  as  Gregorovius  remarks,  to  what 
a  depth  of  shameless  secularisation  the  Papacy  had 
sunk.  Soon  after  the  Pope's  return  a  Bull  was 
issued  excommunicating  the  Colonna  and  the 

159 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Savelli,  who  were  declared  to  be  rebels  and  their 
property  confiscated  on  account  of  their  league 
with  Ferrantino  of  Naples.  A  small  part  of  the 
Savelli  estates  was  conferred  on  Giovanni  Paolo 
Orsini,  whom  it  was  politic  to  favour  for  the  time 
being ;  but  the  bulk  of  the  plunder,  which  of 
course  remained  in  the  family  of  the  Borgia, 
enabled  Alexander  to  found  two  more  dukedoms. 
The  duchy  of  Sermoneta,  which  included  Nimfa, 
Cisterna,  Nettuno,  Ardea,  Nerni,  Albano,  and  other 
towns  or  villages  to  the  number  of  twenty-eight, 
was  given  to  Lucrezia's  infant  son  Rodrigo  ;  and 
the  dukedom  of  Nepi,  which  included  the  towns  of 
Palestrina,  Olevano,  Paliano,  Frascati,  and  Anticoli 
with  some  twenty  other  places,  was  conferred  upon 
the  three-year-old  Giovanni  Borgia,  that  mysterious 
"  Infans  Romanus  "  who  had  been  legitimised  by 
a  Bull  on  September  1  as  the  natural  son  of  Cesare 
and  immediately  afterwards  by  a  second  Bull  of 
the  same  date  as  the  son  of  the  Pope  himself.  The 
greater  part  of  the  states  of  the  Church  had  now 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Borgia  ;  for,  whilst 
these  two  dukedoms  absorbed  the  hereditary  estates 
of  the  three  principal  Roman  barons,  the  dukedom 
of  Romagna  had  absorbed  most  of  the  other 
princely  fiefs. 

Quickly  following  upon  this  came  the  announce- 
ment that  a  marriage  had  been  arranged  between 
the  Pope's  daughter  Lucrezia  and  Alfonso  d'Este, 
heir-apparent  to  the  dukedom  of  Ferrara  ;  another 
piece  of  family  advancement  which  Alexander  had 
accomplished  in  consequence  of  his  acquiescence 
160 


CESARE  BORGIA 

in  the  partition  of  Naples.  It  was  a  capital  stroke 
of  diplomacy,  for  it  would  bring  to  the  support 
of  the  Pope  and  Cesar e  not  only  Ferrara  itself, 
which  was  just  rising  to  the  position  of  influence 
which  Florence  had  formerly  possessed  in  the  time 
of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  but  also  Urbino  and  Mantua, 
both  of  which  were  closely  allied  by  marriage  to 
the  House  of  Este.  A  league  of  Cesare's  present 
states  with  Ferrara,  Mantua,  and  Urbino,  backed 
by  all  the  influence  of  the  Papacy,  and  allied  to 
France,  would  probably  enable  him  to  accomplish 
his  cherished  designs  upon  Bologna  and  Florence, 
and  to  defy  any  likely  combination  of  enemies 
against  the  House  of  Borgia.  But  it  had  been  no 
easy  matter  to  bring  about.  The  pride  of  the 
Este,  one  of  the  oldest  princely  houses  in  Italy, 
had  revolted  against  a  union  with  the  bastard  of 
a  Borgia,  who  had  been  married  twice  already, 
and  whose  reputation  had  been  smirched,  whether 
falsely  or  truly,  by  the  most  abominable  scandals. 
Alfonso  was  strongly  prepossessed  against  the  lady  ; 
and  his  father,  Duke  Ercole,  at  first  rejected  the 
Pope's  offer  with  disdain.  Alexander  was  not  sur- 
prised, but  he  quietly  persisted  in  pointing  out  the 
advantages  of  such  an  alliance  to  Ferrara,  and  the 
serious  disadvantages  that  would  attend  a  refusal. 
Louis  XII's  support  of  this  project  had  been 
secured  as  part  of  the  return  for  the  Pope's  consent 
to  the  expedition  against  Naples  ;  and  in  the  end 
Duke  Ercole  was  forced  to  yield  to  the  pressure 
brought  to  bear  upon  him  by  the  French  king. 
Alfonso,  however,  would  not  consent  until  his 

L  161 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

father  assured  him  that  unless  he  gave  way  he, 
Duke  Ercole,  would  be  compelled  to  marry 
Lucrezia  himself.  In  announcing  the  engagement 
to  his  kinsman  Gonzaga  of  Mantua,  it  is  noticeable 
that  Duke  Ercole  speaks  of  his  affianced  wife  not 
as  the  Pope's  daughter  but  as  "  the  illustrious 
Lady  Lucrezia,  sister  of  the  illustrious  Duke  of 
Romagna  and  Valentinois  "  ;  and  he  makes  no 
secret  of  the  fact  that  he  has  consented  from  con- 
siderations of  policy  and  the  persistent  urging  of 
the  French  king. 

But  though  thus  forced  into  giving  his  consent, 
Ercole  had  not  failed  to  bargain  for  all  he  could 
get.  He  insisted  on  a  dowry  of  100,000  golden 
ducats,  the  cession  of  the  two  cities  of  Ceuto  and 
Castel  della  Pieve,  which  belonged  to  the  Arch- 
bishopric of  Bologna,  on  the  relinquishment  to  the 
House  of  Este  of  a  large  number  of  lucrative 
benefices,  and  on  the  remission  of  Ferrara's  yearly 
tribute  as  a  fief  of  the  Church.  Alexander  did 
not  much  like  the  terms,  and  roundly  denounced 
Ercole  as  "a  tradesman "  ;  but  being  strongly 
urged  to  accept  by  Cesare,  who  was  anxious  for 
the  alliance  on  account  of  its  political  advantage 
to  himself,  he  at  length,  after  a  good  deal  of 
wrangling,  agreed  to  all  the  Duke  of  Ferrara's 
demands.  The  nuptial  contract  was  accordingly 
signed  on  September  1,  and  was  announced  in 
Rome  three  days  later  by  the  illumination  of  the 
Vatican  and  the  thunder  of  the  guns  of  St.  Angelo. 
Lucrezia,  perhaps  unaware  of  Alfonso's  aversion, 
did  not  attempt  to  conceal  her  joy.  Though  she 
162 


CESARE  BORGIA 

had  already  lost  two  husbands,  one  by  divorce  and 
one  by  murder,  she  was  only  twenty-one  years  of 
age  ;  and  her  vanity  was  doubtless  deeply  gratified 
by  the  prospect  of  becoming  reigning  Duchess  of 
Ferrara  and  a  member  of  one  of  the  oldest  of  the 
princely  houses  of  Italy.  It  was  no  more  than  a 
year  since  the  tragedy  of  her  second  husband's 
assassination  ;  but  Lucrezia,  who  possessed  a  full 
measure  of  her  father's  light-hearted  carelessness, 
could  fling  her  whole  little  soul  into  the  fleeting 
pleasures  of  the  passing  moment  and  let  the  dead 
past  bury  its  dead. 

On  the  morning  following  the  announcement  of 
her  betrothal  Lucrezia  went  in  procession,  gorge- 
ously attired,  accompanied  by  four  bishops  and 
surrounded  by  a  brilliant  suite  of  three  hundred 
nobles  and  ladies,  to  the  Church  of  S.  Maria  del 
Popolo  to  offer  up  her  thanks  and  ask  the  blessing 
of  Heaven  on  her  approaching  nuptials  ;  and  then, 
in  the  course  of  the  subsequent  festivities  to 
celebrate  the  event,  she  nearly  danced  herself  into 
a  fever.  The  rejoicings  were  kept  up  for  several 
weeks ;  masquerades  and  races  and  bull-fights 
entertained  the  populace,  comedies  were  performed 
in  the  Vatican,  and  the  Ferrarese  ambassador 
reports  that  at  the  Pope's  palace  the  whole  of 
every  night,  until  two  or  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  was  spent  in  dancing  and  in  play.  It 
would  be  absurd,  of  course,  to  judge  either  the 
ladies  or  the  priests  of  the  Italian  Renascence 
according  to  our  modern  notions  of  decorum  ;  but 
some  of  the  Borgian  amusements  were  of  so 

163 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

licentious  a  character  that  even  contemporary 
libertines  were  shocked.  If  such  charges  rested 
solely  on  the  authority  of  an  anonymous  hostile 
pamphlet,  like  the  "  Letter  to  Silvio  Savelli,"  they 
might  perhaps  be  dismissed  as  false  and  malicious 
libels  ;  but  the  evidence  of  Burchard,  the  Pope's 
precise  and  pedantic  Master  of  the  Ceremonies,  is 
irrefutable.  Without  the  slightest  trace  of  feeling, 
or  the  remotest  hint  of  blame,  this  phlegmatic 
diarist  records  as  the  merest  matter  of  fact  the 
unprintable  details  of  a  scandalous  orgy  in  the 
Vatican,  when  Cesare  Borgia  introduced  a  company 
of  fifty  nude  courtesans  to  amuse  the  company 
after  supper  ;  and  on  another  occasion  relates  with 
the  same  sang-froid  how  the  Pope  and  his  daughter 
sat  at  a  window  of  the  Vatican  and  laughed  at  an 
even  more  lewd  and  revolting  spectacle  which  the 
Holy  Father  himself  had  devised  for  their  enter- 
tainment. 


164 


VI 
LUCREZIA  BORGIA,  PRINCESS  OF  ESTE 

So  little  faith  had  the  Duke  of  Ferrara  in  the 
promise  of  a  Borgia,  and  so  anxious  was  he  to 
have  securities  in  hand  for  all  the  concessions  he 
had  demanded,  that  three  months  elapsed  after  the 
betrothal  before  he  could  be  persuaded  to  send 
for  his  son's  bride.  At  length,  however,  on 
December  9,  1501,  a  brilliant  cavalcade  of  more 
than  fifteen  hundred  persons  set  out  to  fetch 
Lucrezia  to  her  new  home.  At  their  head  were 
Cardinal  Ippolito  d'Este,  with  two  other  brothers 
of  the  bridegroom  ;  and  besides  members  of  the 
ducal  family,  the  escort  included  a  number  of 
magnificently  apparelled  nobles,  several  bishops, 
and  a  crowd  of  friends  and  vassals  of  the  House 
of  Ferrara.  There  were  580  horses  and  mules 
and  fifty  waggons  to  carry  the  necessary  baggage. 
After  a  tedious  and  uncomfortable  journey  of 
thirteen  days,  they  arrived,  wet  through  and 
bespattered  with  mud,  at  Monterosi,  a  castle 
belonging  to  the  Pope,  situated  about  fifteen 
miles  from  Rome.  Here  they  halted  to  make  them- 
selves presentable  for  a  ceremonious  entry,  and 
sent  a  herald  to  receive  the  Pope's  commands. 
Answer  arrived  that  arrangements  had  been  made 

165 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

to  meet  them  at  the  Porta  del   Popolo  the   next 
day. 

It  was  a  red-letter  day  in  the  annals  of  the  House 
of  Borgia,  and  Alexander  had  determined  that 
it  should  be  celebrated  with  all  the  theatrical 
splendour  at  his  command.  At  the  Ponte  Molle 
the  visitors  were  met  by  the  Governor  and  senators 
of  Rome,  who  came  out  to  salute  them,  preceded 
by  drums  and  trumpets,  and  accompanied  by  two 
thousand  men.  After  this  preliminary  ceremony, 
the  embassy  was  met  at  half-a-bowshot  from  the 
city  gate  by  the  Duke  of  Romagna  and  his  suite, 
with  a  following  of  four  thousand  men.  First 
came  six  pages  dressed  in  silk  tunics  of  the  Duke's 
colours,  black  and  yellow ;  after  these  followed 
a  hundred  mounted  gentlemen  of  the  Duke's 
service  ;  then  two  hundred  Swiss  guards,  carrying 
halberds,  clothed  in  black  and  yellow  velvet,  and 
wearing  black  and  yellow  plumes  in  their  hats. 
When  these  had  formed  up  as  a  guard  of  honour, 
the  Duke  himself,  followed  by  a  numerous  train, 
advanced  to  meet  the  head  of  the  embassy.  His 
splendid  appearance  seems  to  have  created  a  great 
impression.  He  was  dressed  in  a  silk  tunic  of  the 
French  fashion,  fastened  by  a  golden  belt,  and 
he  rode  a  splendid  charger,  whose  harness  was 
completely  covered  with  gold  and  pearls  and  other 
jewels  to  the  value,  as  the  Venetian  ambassador 
declares,  of  10,000  ducats.  After  embracing 
Cardinal  Ippolito,  Cesare  rode  by  his  side  to  the 
city  gate,  where  the  embassy  was  met  by  nineteen 
cardinals,  each  attended  by  two  hundred  followers, 
166 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA,  PRINCESS  OF  ESTE 

and  the  formal  ceremonies,  including  an  oration^ 
occupied  more  than  two  hours.  This  ended,  the 
visitors  proceeded  over  the  Corso  to  the  Vatican. 
As  they  passed  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  they  were 
saluted  by  a  salvo  of  artillery,  which  frightened 
some  of  the  horses  and  threw  the  cavalcade  into 
disorder  ;  but  they  reached  the  Apostolic  Palace 
at  last,  and  were  warmly  received  by  his  Holiness, 
who  advanced  to  meet  them  accompanied  by  a 
suite  of  twelve  cardinals.  After  they  had  kissed 
his  feet,  Cardinal  Ippolito  and  his  brothers  were 
raised  up  and  embraced  by  the  Pope,  who  expressed 
his  great  pleasure  at  seeing  them,  made  kind 
inquiries  as  to  their  journey,  and  altogether 
pleased  them  very  much  by  his  amiability  and 
condescension.  Then  the  Duke  of  Romagna  con- 
ducted the  Princes  to  the  apartments  of  his  sister. 
The  beautiful  and  clever  Isabella  Gonzaga, 
Marchioness  of  Mantua,  had  sent  a  special  agent 
to  Rome  in  order  to  be  supplied  with  full  details 
of  Lucrezia's  dress  and  appearance  and  of  all 
the  wedding  festivities.  From  the  report  of  this 
agent,  El  Prete,  which  is  preserved  in  the  archives 
of  Mantua,  we  learn  that  Lucrezia  was  dressed  in 
a  mulberry-coloured  gown  embroidered  with  gold, 
the  sleeves  tight  and  cut  in  the  Spanish  fashion, 
an  outer  robe,  lined  with  ermine,  which  reached 
nearly  to  her  feet,  a  head-dress  of  green  velvet 
trimmed  with  gold  fringe  and  pearls,  and  round 
her  neck  a  string  of  pearls  with  a  pendant.  She 
advanced  to  meet  her  visitors  leaning  on  the  arm 
of  some  court  official,  an  old  gentleman  in  black 

167 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

velvet,  who  wore  a  gold  chain  round  his  neck. 
There  had  been  some  discussion,  El  Prete  says, 
concerning  the  manner  in  which  the  cardinal  and 
his  brothers  were  to  address  Lucrezia,  so  as  to 
exhibit  some  degree  of  brotherly  love  and  at  the 
same  time  the  respect  due  to  her  exalted  position. 
The  matter  had  been  referred  to  the  Pope's  Master 
of  the  Ceremonies,  who  ruled  that  the  brothers  must 
not  kiss  her,  but  pay  their  addresses  in  the  way 
ladies  of  the  blood-royal  of  France  were  accus- 
tomed to  be  approached  in  public  by  their  relatives. 
Accordingly,  after  Lucrezia  had  bowed  to  them 
graciously,  conversed  for  a  few  minutes,  offered 
them  refreshments,  and  distributed  amongst  them 
certain  small  gifts  of  jewellery,  the  envoys  retired 
from  her  august  presence,  and  were  conducted  to 
the  apartments  prepared  for  them  in  the  Apostolic 
Palace. 

Duke  Ercole  had  made  an  excellent  political 
bargain  over  the  match,  but  apparantly  he  was  still 
greatly  disturbed  by  the  black  rumours  that  had 
been  circulated  concerning  the  character  of  the  young 
woman  whom  he  had  been  forced  to  accept  as  his 
eldest  son's  wife,  for  the  Ferrarese  ambassador 
had  been  instructed  to  make  every  inquiry  and  to 
report  the  exact  truth.  This  good  man,  however, 
seems  to  have  fallen  an  easy  conquest  to  the 
characteristic  charm  of  the  Borgian  manner.  On 
the  very  evening  of  his  arrival  he  wrote  off  to  say 
it  was  impossible  to  credit  any  sinister  reports 
about  such  a  lovely  and  gracious  lady.  She  is  not 
only  very  beautiful,  he  declares,  but  modest  and 
168 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA,  PRINCESS  OF  ESTE 

decorous  likewise.  Moreover,  she  is  a  devout 
Christian,  for  to-morrow  she  goes  to  confession, 
and  in  Christmas  week  she  will  receive  the  Com- 
munion. He  has  had  a  long  conversation  with 
her,  has  found  her  extremely  intelligent,  and  is 
quite  sure  that  both  the  Duke  and  his  illustrious 
son  will  be  highly  pleased  with  her. 

Alexander  had  wished  the  marriage  of  his 
daughter  to  be  solemnised  by  the  head  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  the  Apostolic  Palace  in  Rome, 
but  a  committee  of  cardinals  learned  in  ecclesi- 
astical law  decided  that  the  marriage  ceremony 
had  already  been  performed  by  proxy  in  Ferrara 
and  could  not  be  repeated.  But  although  he 
could  not  have  a  full  church  service  in  the  chapel 
of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  the  Pope  arranged  for 
a  splendid  ceremony  in  his  own  apartments  in 
the  Vatican.  On  the  evening  of  December  30, 
Lucrezia,  accompanied  by  fifty  maids  of  honour 
and  a  bevy  of  courtiers,  was  escorted  by  the 
Ferrarese  envoys  from  her  own  palace  to  the 
Vatican.  Nicolo  Cagnolo  describes  her  as  a  slight 
graceful  figure  of  middle  height,  with  well-formed 
neck  and  bust,  an  oval  face,  delicately  shaped 
Grecian  nose,  grey  eyes,  golden  hair,  a  rather  large 
mouth  with  beautiful  white  teeth,  and  an  amiable 
and  lively  countenance.  Isabella  Gonzaga's  agent, 
El  Prete,  completes  the  portrait  by  telling  us  what 
she  wore.  She  was  dressed  on  this  occasion,  he 
says,  in  an  overmantle  of  gold  brocade,  made  in 
the  French  fashion  with  open  sleeves.  Beneath 
this  was  a  dress  of  crimson  silk  bordered  with 

169 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

ermine.  At  the  back  of  her  head  she  wore  a 
cap  of  dark-coloured  silk  shot  with  gold  thread. 
Her  golden  hair  fell  over  her  shoulders,  and  was 
merely  held  together  by  a  narrow  black  riband. 
Round  her  neck  was  a  string  of  large  pearls  from 
which  hung  a  pendant  of  precious  stones  of  great 
value. 

Seated  on  his  throne  and  surrounded  by  thirteen 
cardinals,  the  Pope  awaited  the  bridal  party  in 
the  Sala  Paolina.  Then,  in  the  presence  of  a 
brilliant  throng,  which  included  the  Duke  of 
Romagna  and  the  ambassadors  of  France,  Spain, 
and  Venice,  Lucrezia  stood  at  a  table  side  by  side 
with  Don  Ferrante,  who  acted  as  his  brother's 
proxy,  whilst  the  Bishop  of  Adria  delivered  a 
wedding  sermon.  When  this  good  prelate's  elo- 
quence was  exhausted,  or  rather  when  it  had  been 
cut  short  by  the  impatient  Pope,  Don  Ferrante 
placed  the  wedding  ring  on  the  bride's  finger, 
and  the  completion  of  the  ceremony  was  duly 
attested  by  a  notary.  Immediately  afterwards 
Cardinal  Ippolito  d'Este  presented  the  Duke  of 
Ferrara's  present  to  his  daughter-in-law,  which 
consisted  of  a  small  casket  containing  chains, 
rings,  pearls,  and  other  jewellery  to  the  value  of 
70,000  ducats.  Other  wedding  gifts  were  then 
presented  by  the  various  cardinals  and  ambassa- 
dors, after  which  the  guests  went  to  the  windows 
to  watch  the  entertainments  which  were  going 
on  in  the  Piazza,  of  St.  Peter.  Fireworks,  free 
theatres,  horse-races,  reviews  of  troops,  tourna- 
ments, bull-fights,  and  mimic  battles,  amused  the 
170 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA,  PRINCESS  OF  ESTE 

Roman  populace  for  a  full  week,  until  the  day 
arrived  for  Lucrezia  to  set  out  on  her  journey  to 
Ferrara. 

The  Pope  equipped  his  daughter  as  if  she  were 
a  queen.  In  addition  to  the  100,000  ducats  in 
cash  which  he  paid  over  to  Duke  Ercole,  Lucrezia 
carried  with  her  to  Ferrara  silver  plate  to  the 
value  of  30,000  ducats,  jewellery,  dresses,  linen, 
and  other  household  furniture,  trappings  for  horses 
and  mules,  &c.,  worth  another  100,000  ducats. 
Amongst  other  costly  articles  enumerated  by  the 
Mantuan  agent  were  a  single  dress  said  to  be 
worth  15,000  ducats  or  more,  and  two  hundred 
chemises,  some  of  which,  being  trimmed  with 
gold  fringe,  were  worth  a  hundred  ducats  apiece. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  mules  were  required  to 
carry  her  baggage  ;  and  so  large  was  her  retinue 
that  Alexander  provided  a  thousand  horses  and 
mules,  as  well  as  two  hundred  carriages  for  their 
transport.  A  cardinal,  Francesco  Borgia,  Arch- 
bishop of  Cosenza,  accompanied  her  as  Legate ; 
the  city  of  Rome  and  the  Roman  nobility  sent 
several  special  representatives,  and  the  Duke  of 
Romagna  provided  an  escort  of  two  hundred 
cavaliers.  The  bridal  escort  had  come  to  Rome 
by  way  of  Tuscany,  but  the  Pope  decided  that 
Lucrezia  should  travel  to  Ferrara  through  the 
Romagna.  He  carefully  named  which  towns  they 
should  put  up  in  throughout  the  journey  ;  and 
each  place  was  required,  on  pain  of  his  displeasure, 
to  provide  everything  the  company  required  during 
their  stay. 

171 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

On  January  6,  1502,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, Lucrezia  departed  from  Rome,  riding  on  a 
beautiful  white  mule,  whose  trappings  were  em- 
broidered with  silver  and  edged  with  gold  fringe. 
According  to  his  express  instructions  from  Isabella 
of  Mantua,  young  Ferrante  d'Este  forwarded 
particulars  of  her  attire.  She  wore  a  tight  dress 
of  crimson  silk,  a  loose  over-robe  of  gold  brocade 
with  large  hanging  sleeves  and  lined  with  ermine. 
On  her  head  was  a  hat  of  crimson  silk  trimmed  with 
feathers,  and  below  the  hat  on  the  left  side  hung 
a  pendant  of  pearls  which  reached  to  her  ear. 
Altogether,  says  the  admiring  youth,  she  made  a 
magnificent  appearance.  Her  father  went  from 
window  to  window  of  the  Vatican  watching  the 
procession  till  it  vanished  from  sight,  little  dreaming 
that  he  would  never  look  upon  his  beloved  daughter 
again. 

The  journey  from  Rome  to  Ferrara  occupied 
nearly  a  month,  because  Lucrezia,  being  of  a 
delicate  constitution,  and  unaccustomed  to  the 
saddle,  travelled  by  easy  stages  and  frequently 
rested  on  the  road.  The  Pope  was  so  anxious 
about  her  that  he  had  made  her  promise  to  write 
to  him  concerning  her  health  from  every  city 
she  passed  through.  According  to  the  Ferrarese 
ambassadors,  his  Holiness  demanded  daily  and 
even  hourly  reports  of  her  journey,  showing  un- 
mistakably they  thought  that  he  loved  her  more 
than  any  of  his  children.  All  the  cities  through 
which  she  passed  received  her  with  triumphal 
arches,  decorations,  illuminations,  and  every 
172 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA,  PRINCESS  OF  ESTE 

demonstration  of  honour  and  esteem.  Just  before 
she  reached  Foligno  all  the  Baglioni  came  from 
their  various  castles  to  meet  her,  and  invited  her 
to  their  city  of  Perugia.  But  this  was  not  in  the 
programme,  and  she  continued  her  march  towards 
Urbino.  At  Gubbio,  one  of  the  principal  cities  of 
the  Montefeltri,  she  was  met  by  the  Duchess 
Elizabetta,  who  remained  with  her  all  the  rest 
of  the  way  to  Ferrara.  When  she  reached  Urbino 
on  January  18  Duke  Guidobaldo  with  the  whole 
of  his  court  came  out  to  meet  her  and  conduct 
her  to  his  beautiful  palace,  which  he  had  vacated 
for  her  convenience,  and  which,  by  way  of  in- 
gratiating himself  with  the  sister  of  the  dreaded 
Duke  of  Romagna,  he  had  decorated  with  the 
Borgian  and  French  coats-of-arms.  From  Urbino 
she  passed  on  to  Pesaro,  now  owned  by  her  brother 
Cesare,  where  a  hundred  children,  clad  in  his 
colours  of  black  and  yellow  and  carrying  olive 
branches  in  their  hands,  came  out  to  greet  her, 
crying,  "  Duca  !  Duca  !  Lucrezia  !  Lucrezia  !  " 
The  city  officials  conducted  her  to  the  palace 
that  had  once  been  that  of  her  divorced  husband, 
Giovanni  Sforza  ;  and  we  need  not  be  surprised 
to  learn  that  during  her  stay  in  that  place  she 
joined  in  none  of  the  festivities,  but  kept  herself 
in  strict  seclusion  on  the  pretext  of  washing  her 
head.  From  town  to  town  of  the  Duke  of 
Romagna's  dominions  she  was  accompanied  by 
his  despotic  and  cruel  lieutenant,  Don  Ramiro 
d'Orco  ;  and  at  every  city  gate  the  magistrates 
presented  her  with  their  keys.  After  leaving  Forli, 

173 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

where  again  she  had  spent  a  day  in  the  apparently 
highly  important  mystery  of  "  washing  her  head," 
a  guard  of  a  thousand  foot  and  150  horsemen  was 
provided,  in  case  the  bridal  train  might  be  attacked 
by  the  bandit  Carraro,  who,  notwithstanding  the 
efforts  of  Cesare's  terrible  lieutenant,  Don  Ramiro, 
still  infested  the  roads.  At  Bologna,  which  had 
not  been  seized  by  the  Duke  of  Romagna  solely 
because  of  the  prohibition  of  the  French  King, 
Giovanni  Bentivoglio  entertained  the  sister  of  his 
mortal  enemy  with  splendid  festivities,  and  on 
the  following  day  accompanied  her  with  osten- 
tatious courtesy  to  the  river  Po,  along  which  she 
proposed  to  finish  her  journey  in  order  to  escape 
the  discomfort  of  further  travelling  by  land. 

On  the  evening  of  January  31  Lucrezia  reached 
one  of  the  castles  belonging  to  the  Bentivogli  family 
situated  about  twenty  miles  from  Ferrara.  And 
here  a  very  singular  thing  happened.  Although 
she  had  corresponded  in  very  friendly  terms  with 
her  father-in-law,  and  had  evidently  made  a 
highly  favourable  impression  on  her  young  brothers- 
in-law,  her  husband  had  hitherto  held  aloof,  and 
there  had  been  no  personal  communication  what- 
ever between  them.  Apparently  he  had  not  the 
slightest  interest  in  the  wife  who  had  been  forced 
upon  him  by  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  France. 
But  all  of  a  sudden  his  curiosity  seems  to  have 
been  aroused  ;  and,  disguising  himself  and  four 
of  his  friends  as  common  soldiers,  he  rode  off  to 
this  castle  of  the  Bentivogli,  sent  a  messenger 
to  Lucrezia  to  inform  her  of  his  arrival,  and 
174 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA,    PRINCESS  OF  ESTE 

requested  an  interview  with  her.  Although  some- 
what startled  by  his  sudden  and  unexpected  ap- 
pearance, Lucrezia  seem  to  have  received  her 
tardy  husband  very  graciously  ;  and  after  some 
conversation  he  and  his  disguised  friends  rode 
back  to  Ferrara. 

Alfonso  d'Este  was  of  a  reserved  and  even  sullen 
disposition.  He  was  a  capable  soldier  in  the  field, 
and  had  devoted  himself  specially  to  the  study  of 
civil  and  military  engineering.  So  great  was  his 
interest  in  the  manufacture  of  cannon  that  he  had 
made  himself  a  skilful  mechanic,  and  was  in  the 
habit  of  working  in  the  foundry  in  company  with 
his  men.  When  little  over  fifteen  years  of  age 
he  had  been  married  to  Anna  Sforza,  sister  to  the 
young  Duke  of  Milan  ;  but  in  1497,  after  six  happy 
years  of  married  life,  she  had  died  immediately 
after  the  birth  of  her  first  child,  and  the  infant 
had  not  survived  her.  Alfonso  was  now  in  his 
twenty-fifth  year,  fully  aware  that  it  was  his  duty 
as  heir  to  the  dukedom  to  carry  on  the  succession, 
but  strongly  averse  to  a  second  wife  on  account 
of  the  tender  memories  he  cherished  of  the  first, 
and  doubly  averse  to  Lucrezia  Borgia,  because  of 
her  dubious  reputation  and  because  she  was  the 
illegitimate  offspring  of  a  priest.  Whatever  may 
have  been  his  sentiments,  however,  previous  to 
this  surprise  interview  in  the  castle  of  the 
Bentivogli,  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  he 
immediately  succumbed  to  the  peculiar  fascination 
which  Lucrezia  Borgia  exercised  over  all  who  came 
in  contact  with  her.  It  may  be  an  exaggeration 

175 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

to  say,  as  one  of  her  admiring  biographers  does, 
that  she  instantly  turned  Alfonso's  ardent  aversion 
into  an  equally  ardent  love,  but  it  is  an  undoubted 
fact  that  she  secured  his  confidence  and  esteem, 
and  that  they  lived  together  in  undisturbed 
harmony  for  nearly  twenty  years. 

Duke  Ercole  had  made  the  most  splendid  and 
extravagant  preparations  for  Lucrezia's  reception. 
He  had  induced  his  daughter,  Isabella  Gonzaga  of 
Mantua,  strongly  prejudiced  against  Lucrezia  and 
ardently  hostile  as  she  was  to  the  whole  Borgian 
family,  to  come  to  Ferrara  to  do  the  honours  of 
the  city  ;  and  the  special  guests  he  had  invited 
numbered,  together  with  their  numerous  suites, 
no  less  than  two  thousand  persons.  The  Ferrarese 
nobility  placed  their  palaces  at  his  disposal,  but 
Ercole  insisted  that  none  but  those  whose  means 
were  amply  adequate  should  be  at  any  expense 
for  the  maintenance  of  his  guests.  The  French 
ambassador  and  his  suite  of  fifty  persons  were 
entertained  with  profuse  hospitality  throughout  the 
festivities  by  the  Cavaliere  Bonifacio  Bevilagna. 
The  Venetian  ambassadors  with  their  suite,  which 
numbered  one  hundred  and  fifty,  were  lodged  with 
a  son-in-law  of  Sigismondo,  the  Duke's  brother. 
Count  Guaniero,  the  Grand  Steward,  took  charge 
of  the  Florentine  ambassadors,  whose  suite  likewise 
numbered  one  hundred  and  fifty.  The  ambas- 
sadors of  the  bride's  brother,  the  illustrious  Duke 
of  Romagna,  were  lodged  in  the  Schiavanoja 
Palace,  the  most  splendid  in  all  Ferrara  ;  and  the 
other  princely  and  noble  visitors  were  similarly 
176 


LUCRETIA  BORGIA,  PRINCESS  OF  ESTE 

provided  for.  Duke  Ercole,  who  had  engaged  a 
small  army  of  cooks,  found  his  commissariat  a 
matter  of  no  small  difficulty.  We  read  that  as 
early  as  December  22  he  had  collected  300  oxen 
and  calves,  15,000  head  of  poultry,  about  the 
same  quantity  of  game,  300  large  cheeses,  and  other 
requisities  in  similar  proportion.  But  the  ladies 
and  gentlemen  of  the  Renascence  had  hearty 
appetites,  and  he  evidently  feared  lest  his  guests 
should  be  short  of  veal,  for  we  find  him  subse- 
quently begging  the  loan  of  100  calves  from  his 
illustrious  son-in-law  of  Mantua,  under  promise 
to  return  that  number  on  the  first  convenient 
opportunity. 

The  Duke  of  Ferrara  was  a  specialist  in  cere- 
monial shows,  and  he  had  determined  that  the 
home-coming  of  his  daughter-in-law  should  be  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  spectacles  of  that  spectacular 
age.  On  Tuesday,  February  1,  the  illustrious 
Isabella  Gonzaga,  Marchioness  of  Mantua,  with 
her  suite,  went  up  the  river  in  a  state  barge  to  a 
point  at  which  it  had  been  arranged  to  meet  the 
bride,  who  was  coming  down  stream  in  her  barge, 
accompanied  by  Elizabetta,  Duchess  of  Urbino. 
Isabella  greeted  and  embraced  her  sister-in-law 
with  great  politeness  and  demonstrations  of 
apparent  affection,  although,  as  she  wrote  to  her 
husband  immediately  afterwards,  her  real  senti- 
ments were  those  of  anger  and  repugnance.  Yet 
she  also  was  destined  to  fall  under  the  spell  of 
the  Borgian  magnetism,  and  from  this  time  forth 
to  the  day  of  her  death  she  remained  one  of 

M  177 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Lucrezia's  most  sympathetic  and  affectionate 
friends.  Isabella  conducted  the  bride  to  the 
Palace  of  Alberto  d'Este,  outside  the  walls,  where 
Lucrezia  and  her  husband  were  to  stay  the  night, 
before  making  their  public  entry  into  the  city. 
A  lady  superintendent  with  twelve  younger  ladies, 
all  dressed  alike  in  crimson  satin  and  black  velvet, 
had  been  appointed  to  wait  upon  her  ;  and  her 
father-in-law  had  sent  as  a  present  five  gorgeous 
carriages,  covered  in  velvet,  or  satin,  or  gold 
brocade,  and  each  drawn  by  four  beautiful  and 
handsomely  caparisoned  horses. 

On  the  following  day  Lucrezia  made  her  formal 
entry  into  Ferrarr.,  every  detail  of  which  has  been 
minutely  recorded  by  the  chroniclers  of  the  time. 
We  are  told  of  the  eighty  resplendent  trumpeters 
in  white  and  mulberry-coloured  satin  and  gold 
brocade,  of  the  seventy-five  mounted  archers  in 
the  Este  livery  of  white  and  red,  of  the  company 
of  halberdiers  in  tunics  of  dark-coloured  velvet 
and  cloth  of  gold  and  wearing  close-fitting  panta- 
loons of  which  one  leg  was  black  and  the  other 
flesh-coloured,  of  the  five  reverend  bishops  in  long 
mantles  trimmed  with  fur,  of  the  gentlemen  in 
attendance  on  the  bride  including  some  specially 
magnificent  Spaniards  in  vests  of  gold  brocade 
with  tabards  of  black  velvet,  of  the  foreign 
ambassadors,  the  deputies  of  the  city  of  Rome, 
the  ladies  in  open  carriages,  all  resplendently 
attired  in  satins  and  velvets  and  jewels,  and  of  the 
clowns  and  buffoons  without  which  no  procession 
in  these  days  would  have  been  complete. 
178 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA,  PRINCESS  OF  ESTE 

The  bridegroom,  a  stern-looking,  black-bearded 
man,  was  dressed  after  the  French  fashion  in  red 
velvet.  He  wore  small  red  boots  with  black 
velvet  gaiters,  and  rode  a  bay  horse  caparisoned 
in  crimson  and  gold.  The  bride,  on  a  splendid 
white  horse,  whose  trappings  were  richly  orna- 
mented with  gold  and  pearls,  rode  under  a  purple 
baldachin  which  was  supported  by  eight  doctors 
of  the  various  faculties  of  the  University  of  Ferrara. 
It  was  no  doubt  the  proudest  moment  of  her  life, 
and  she  had  apparelled  herself  accordingly.  Over 
a  camorra  of  dark  satin  trimmed  with  gold  lace 
she  wore  a  loose  robe  of  gold  brocade.  On  her 
head  was  a  small  cap  completely  covered  with  gold 
and  pearls,  to  the  value,  as  Zambotta  declares,  of 
30,000  ducats.  Round  her  neck  was  a  chain 
composed  of  alternate  diamonds,  pearls,  and  rubies, 
from  the  centre  of  which  hung  a  pearl  and  a  ruby 
of  great  size  and  value.  Her  beautiful  golden  hair 
fell  loosely  over  her  shoulders ;  and  as  she  rode 
through  the  crowded  streets,  the  people  of  Ferrara 
must  have  thought  that  their  Prince  could  never 
have  found  a  more  magnificent  or  more  radiantly 
beautiful  bride.  Eighty-six  mules  had  previously 
entered  the  city  carrying  her  trousseau  and  jewel- 
lery ;  so  that  the  good  people  of  Ferrara  were  also 
shown  that  their  Prince  had  brought  home  a  bride 
exceptionally  well  dowered.  It  may  not  have 
occurred  to  them,  as  the  historian  Gregorovius 
severely  remarks,  that  the  boxes  and  bales  so 
ostentatiously  displayed  represented  her  rapacious 
father's  plunder  from  all  the  cities  of  Christendom. 

179 


VII 
THE  CULMINATION 

TOWARDS  the  end  of  1501,  and  just  before 
Lucrezia's  departure  for  Ferrara,  a  virulent 
lampoon  against  the  Pope  and  his  family  appeared 
in  the  form  of  a  printed  letter  addressed  to  Silvio 
Savelli,  one  of  the  dispossessed  and  exiled  Roman 
barons,  who  was  then  living  at  the  Court  of 
the  Emperor  Maximilian.  It  purported  to  have 
been  written  by  another  banished  Roman,  and 
was  dated  from  the  Spanish  camp  at  Taranto. 
It  would  not  be  fair,  of  course,  to  take  the  ex  parte 
statements  of  this  epistle  as  evidence  except 
where  there  is  some  corroboration.  But  it  is  an 
authentic  document,  which  was  widely  read  and 
widely  believed  during  Alexander's  lifetime.  The 
mere  fact  that  it  could  be  believed  is  significant 
of  much.  And  after  making  every  allowance  for 
the  passion  of  an  injured  and  revengeful  enemy 
(who  was  probably  one  of  the  Colonna),  it  must 
be  admitted  to  cast  a  lurid  light  upon  the  condition 
to  which  Rome  and  the  Church  had  been  reduced 
by  the  disgraceful  conduct  of  the  Borgia. 

Silvio,  who  had  been  reported  to  have  solicited 
friends  and  obtained  recommendatory  letters  to 
intercede  with  the  Pope  for  the  restoration  of  his 
180 


THE  CULMINATION 

estates,  is  warned  of  the  hopelessness  of  attempting 
to  deal  in  that  way  with  such  a  traitor,  who  never 
would  or  could  do  justice  unless  compelled  by 
fear  or  force.  He  is  a  monster,  says  the  writer, 
whose  whole  life  has  been  devoted  to  whoredom 
and  rapine  and  deceit.  It  is  folly  to  complain 
of  the  Turk  when  this  new  Mahomet  infinitely 
surpasses  the  other.  He  is  anti-Christ,  for  no 
greater  enemy  to  our  religion  is  conceivable.  He 
must  be  publicly  exposed.  Silvio  must  inform 
the  Emperor  and  all  the  Princes  of  the  Empire 
of  all  the  abominable  crimes  of  this  plague  of 
Christendom.  They  must  be  related  before  the 
Diet ;  and  printed  copies  of  the  charges  must  be 
distributed  throughout  Europe.  Some  of  these 
charges,  which  Silvio  is  enjoined  to  recite  boldly, 
with  an  audible  voice,  in  a  public  assembly  of  the 
princes,  are  then  enumerated  as  follows. 

Honours,  dignities,  marriages,  divorces,  every- 
thing is  now  vendible  by  this  monstrous  head  of 
the  Christian  Church.  Benefices  and  ecclesiastical 
dignities,  which  used  to  be,  and  ought  to  be, 
conferred  on  worthy  men  for  the  salvation  of 
souls,  are  now  disposed  of  by  open  sale.  Any  one 
may  now  go  to  the  Pope's  Palace  and  buy  the 
Christian  mysteries  with  gold.  There,  like  Cer- 
berus at  the  gate  of  Hell,  stands  the  Cardinal  of 
Modena,  the  Pope's  minister  of  iniquity,  readily 
granting  admission  to  the  rich  and  sending  the 
poor  empty  away.  In  Rome,  and  even  within  the 
Pope's  own  apartments,  the  Tartars  are  outdone 
in  thieving,  the  Carthaginians  in  treachery  and 

181 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

deceit,  Nero  and  Caligula  in  riot  and  cruelty. 
There  Alfonso  of  Aragon  was  barbarously  murdered 
and  Perotto  slain  within  his  master's  arms.  The 
number  of  other  persons  who  have  been  wounded 
or  murdered  and  thrown  into  the  Tiber  is  too 
great  to  be  enumerated.  There  is  not  now  a 
private  person  in  Rome  without  fears  for  himself 
or  some  of  his  family.  It  is  impossible  to  describe 
without  trembling  the  monstrous  lewdness  which 
is  openly  practised  in  the  Pope's  own  palace,  or 
the  filthiness  of  his  sons  and  daughters.  But  the 
indignant  writer  does  go  on  to  describe  what  no 
modern  pen,  whether  trembling  or  not,  can  venture 
to  translate. 

The  Pope  has  driven  the  greater  part  of  the 
Roman  nobility  into  exile  and  despoiled  the 
ancient  Lords  of  Latium  in  order  to  provide 
wealth  and  principalities  for  his  incestuous  brood 
of  children  and  grandchildren,  some  of  whom 
are  yet  infants  in  their  cradles.  A  religious  war 
has  been  proclaimed  against  the  Turk,  prayers 
appointed  in  all  the  churches  of  Rome,  pardons 
and  indulgences  sold  in  every  foreign  city — for 
what  ?  Solely  as  a  contrivance  to  raise  large 
sums  of  money  to  enable  the  Pope  to  support 
the  luxury  of  his  children,  and  to  make  war  upon 
ancient  free  cities  and  rightful  princes. 

As  to  the  doings  of  his  son  Cesare,  everybody 
knows  of  the  calamities  that  have  fallen  upon 
Imola  and  Forli,  of  the  storming  of  Faenza,  of 
the  subjugation  of  Rimini  and  Pesaro.  To  these 
have  now  been  joined  Cesena,  Fano,  and  Bertinoro, 
182 


THE  CULMINATION 

all  severed  from  the  ecclesiastical  patrimony  in 
order  to  create  a  new  dominion  wherein  this  son, 
the  very  likeness  of  his  father,  may  have  a  wide 
enough  field  for  plunder.  Cesare  is  at  present 
conspiring  against  Camerino  and  Urbino,  so  that 
by  conquering  them  he  may  possess  himself  of  the 
whole  March  of  Ancona.  Spoleto,  Civita  Vecchia, 
Isola,  Nepi,  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo,  all  the 
strongest  fortresses  of  the  ecclesiastical  state,  are 
now  garrisoned  by  his  forces  ;  and  matters  are 
come  to  such  a  pass  that  every  place  is  governed 
according  to  his  pleasure.  Last  year  he  destroyed 
and  ravaged  the  cities  belonging  to  the  Holy  See 
in  the  Romagna  as  if  it  had  been  an  enemy's 
country ;  and  afterwards,  in  the  neighbouring 
and  friendly  State  of  Tuscany  gave  his  soldiers 
leave  to  plunder  for  several  days  so  that  they  filled 
every  place  with  rapine,  rape,  and  murder.  The 
cardinals  are  silent.  The  most  powerful  of  them 
having  been  driven  away,  and  most  of  the  others 
preferring  to  keep  possession  of  their  dignities 
and  wealth  by  fawning  and  flattery,  none  remain 
who  dare  whisper  against  this  Duke's  doings. 
They  all  praise  and  admire,  though  they  all  secretly 
fear,  this  fratricide,  who  once  was  a  cardinal  and 
now  is  an  assassin.  By  his  will  and  nod  everything 
is  controlled ;  and  whomsoever  he  may  desire 
to  get  rid  of  is  stabbed  or  poisoned  and  thrown 
into  the  Tiber.  There  is  a  good  deal  more  in  the 
letter  than  is  here  summarised  ;  and  the  writer 
concludes  with  an  impassioned  appeal  to  the 
princes  of  the  Empire  to  come  to  the  rescue  of 

183 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

their  Church,  to  remove  out  of  the  way  the  vilest 
Pope  that  ever  lived,  and  so  bring  back  the  barque 
of  St.  Peter,  now  tossing  in  a  tempest,  to  a  safe 
haven. 

Cardinal  Ferrari,  the  "  Cerberus  "  of  this  scathing 
composition,  ventured  to  show  it  to  the  Pope, 
who  seems  to  have  treated  it  with  contemptuous 
indifference.  Apparently  he  took  no  steps  to 
stop  the  circulation  of  the  pamphlet  or  to  discover 
its  author.  Cesare,  who  was  now  absolute  tyrant 
of  Rome,  which  was  filled  with  his  police  and 
spies,  was  by  no  means  so  tolerant  of  affronts  ; 
and  how  the  author  of  the  "  Letter  to  Silvio 
Savelli  "  might  have  been  dealt  with  had  he  been 
in  Rome,  and  unwise  enough  to  sign  his  name, 
may  be  inferred  from  the  following  instance  or 
two  of  Cesare's  method  of  dealing  with  critics. 
A  masquerader  who  had  been  seen  to  point  with 
his  finger  at  the  Duke  of  Romagna,  and  heard 
by  a  spy  to  utter  some  disparaging  remark,  was 
immediately  seized  and  thrown  into  prison,  when 
Cesare  ordered  the  culprit's  offending  finger  to  be 
amputated  and  his  tongue  cut  out,  so  that  both 
members,  tied  together  and  suspended  from  the 
bars  of  the  prison  window,  might  serve  as  a  warning 
to  others  to  behave  more  respectfully.  Even  the 
Venetian  ambassador  was  powerless  to  save  a 
fellow  citizen  who  had  similarly  offended  the 
vindictive  Duke.  A  younger  brother  of  Giovanni 
Lorenzo,  a  Venetian  of  good  family  and  famous 
for  his  learning,  had  written  home  some  strong 
comments  on  the  extravagant  expenditure  of  the 
184 


THE  CULMINATION 

Pope  and  his  son.  Cesare,  hearing  of  it  through 
his  spies,  immediately  had  the  poor  fellow  seized 
and  thrown  into  prison.  As  soon  as  this  became 
known  in  Venice  the  Senate  sent  instructions 
to  their  ambassador  in  Rome  to  demand  Lorenzo's 
liberation.  The  Pope  expressed  great  regret  for 
the  occurrence,  of  which  he  declared  he  was 
ignorant,  and  promised  to  give  immediate  orders 
for  the  prisoner's  release.  But  when  the  ambas- 
sador called  on  the  following  day  the  Pope  informed 
him,  with  expressions  of  profound  sorrow,  that  the 
young  man  had  already  died  in  prison.  On  making 
further  inquiries,  the  ambassador  discovered  that, 
the  very  day  before,  by  Cesare's  orders,  Lorenzo 
had  been  strangled  and  his  body  thrown  into  the 
Tiber.  Alexander  explained  that  he  had  fre- 
quently told  his  son  that  Rome  was  a  free  city, 
where  everybody  should  be  at  liberty  to  speak 
and  write  as  he  pleased,  and  reminded  him  that 
although  evil  had  often  been  spoken  of  himself 
he  had  always  let  it  pass.  Whereupon  the  Duke 
replied  that  he  meant  to  teach  such  people  repent- 
ance. 

On  February  17,  six  weeks  after  Lucrezia's 
departure  for  Ferrara,  the  Pope  and  the  Duke 
of  Romagna,  accompanied  by  six  cardinals,  paid 
a  visit  to  Piombino  to  inspect  the  fortifications 
being  constructed  there  under  the  direction  of 
Leonardo  da  Vinci.  It  was  evident  that  Cesare 
had  seized  the  place  as  a  convenient  headquarters 
for  the  operations  which  he  contemplated  against 
Tuscany.  Alexander  usually  managed  to  combine 

185 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

business  with  pleasure  ;  and  we  are  told  that,  in 
spite  of  its  being  Lent,  the  Papal  party  indulged 
in  prodigal  festivity,  and  that  a  performance  of 
beautiful  dancing  girls  was  given  for  the  special 
delectation  of  his  Holiness.  On  the  return  journey 
in  the  early  days  of  March,  his  galleys  were  caught 
in  a  storm,  and  once  more  Rodrigo  Borgia  was  in 
danger  of  a  watery  grave,  not  far  from  the  spot 
where  one  hundred  and  eighty  of  his  suite  were 
lost  on  the  return  from  his  Spanish  legation  in 
1471.  The  crew  were  terrified,  the  cardinals  wept, 
but  Alexander  remained  calm  throughout  all  the 
danger,  making  the  sign  of  the  Cross  and  invoking 
the  protection  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  whom  he 
believed  to  be  always  watching  over  his  safety. 

Since  the  preceding  December  negotiations  had 
been  taking  place  between  the  Vatican  and  Pisa 
for  the  formation  of  an  independent  state  on  the 
coast  of  Tuscany,  of  which  Cesare  was  to  be  the 
head  with  the  title  of  Duke  of  Pisa  ;  and  the 
present  seemed  an  opportune  moment  for  carrying 
out  the  design.  The  Roman  barons  had  been 
crushed,  Cesare's  lieutenant,  Don  Ramiro,  held  the 
Romagna  in  an  iron  grip,  Venice  was  fully  occupied 
with  the  Turks,  Germany  was  unable  to  interfere, 
Ferrara  was  in  close  alliance  ;  and  the  neutrality 
if  not  the  active  aid  of  France  was  confidently 
counted  on  because  Louis  XII  needed  the  Pope's 
assistance  in  the  inevitable  quarrel  with  Spain, 
which  Alexander  had  foreseen  would  sooner  or  later 
break  out  over  the  partition  of  Naples.  Cesare's 
ultimate  aim  seems  to  have  been  to  weld  Tuscany 
186 


THE  CULMINATION 

and  the  states  of  the  Church  (or  rather  his  own 
states)  into  one  domain,  so  that  a  kingly  throne 
of  Central  Italy,  and  perhaps  even  the  Papacy 
itself,  might  become  an  hereditary  possession  of 
the  House  of  Borgia. 

But  first  it  was  necessary  to  complete  his 
sanguinary  work  in  Romagna  and  the  March ; 
and  on  June  13,  1502,  he  left  Rome  at  the  head 
of  his  army,  having  kept  his  plan  of  campaign 
a  profound  secret.  Two  of  his  condottiere, 
Vitelozzo  Vitelli  with  one  hundred  and  twenty 
men-at-arms  and  a  company  of  foot  soldiers,  and 
Gianpaolo  Baglioni  with  fifty  men-at-arms  and 
five  hundred  infantry,  were  already  actively  engaged 
in  furthering  Piero  de'  Medici's  operations  against 
Florence,  and  had  occupied  the  town  of  Arezzo ; 
but  Cesare's  objective  was  in  another  direction 
altogether.  Notwithstanding  the  warning  of  the 
"  Letter  to  Silvio  Savelli  "  six  months  earlier,  any 
suspicions  which  Duke  Guidobaldo  of  Urbino  may 
have  entertained  had  been  artfully  lulled  to  sleep. 
The  Pope  had  amicably  settled  a  dispute  between 
the  Apostolic  Chamber  and  Urbino  respecting  its 
fief,  and  had  even  proposed  a  marriage  between  his 
niece  Angela  Borgia  and  Francesco  Maria  Rovere, 
Guidobaldo's  heir.  Cesare,  on  his  part,  had  pre- 
tended to  take  Guidobaldo  into  his  confidence, 
and  now,  making  a  feint  on  Camerino,  he  induced 
the  Duke  to  lend  him  troops  and  artillery  for  the 
purpose,  as  well  as  to  send  a  thousand  of  his  foot 
soldiers  to  the  assistance  of  Vitelli  in  Tuscany. 
Then,  as  soon  as  the  unsuspecting  Guidobaldo  had 

187 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

thus  disarmed  himself,  Cesare  swooped  down  on 
the  defenceless  State  of  Urbino,  pouring  in  his 
troops  so  suddenly  and  by  so  many  different 
roads  that  Guidobaldo  and  his  young  heir  had 
scarce  time  to  disguise  themselves  and  take  to 
flight.  Having  dismantled  the  ducal  palace  of  its 
splendid  and  valuable  books  and  objects  of  art, 
which  he  packed  off  to  his  own  favourite  castle 
at  Cesena,  Cesare  turned  back  upon  Camerino. 
After  a  siege  of  some  days,  a  truce  was  declared 
to  consider  the  terms  of  a  capitulation ;  but 
whilst  the  negotiations  were  in  progress  Cesare 
suddenly  ordered  the  place  to  be  stormed,  and 
the  unsuspecting  and  unprepared  defenders  easily 
fell  into  his  hands.  Julius  Caesar  Varano,  the 
"  tyrant  "  of  the  place,  with  two  of  his  sons,  were 
thrown  into  prison,  and  subsequently  strangled. 
The  news  of  these  successes  made  the  Pope  almost 
beside  himself  with  joy.  He  read  the  announce- 
ments again  and  again  and  caused  the  Eternal 
City  to  be  illuminated.  Camerino  was  bestowed 
on  the  infant  Giovanni  Borgia  with  the  title  of 
Duke  ;  and  the  perfidious  conqueror  thereof  was 
now  proudly  designated,  "  Cesare  Borgia  of  France, 
by  the  Grace  of  God  Duke  of  Romagna,  of  Valen- 
tinois,  and  of  Urbino,  Prince  of  Andria,  Lord  of 
Piombino,  Gonfaloniere  and  Captain-General  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Church." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Machiavelli  first  came 
into  personal  contact  with  the  successful  soldier 
and  diplomatist,  whom  he  afterwards  depicted  as  a 
model  for  "  tyrants  "  in  his  Principe.  Bishop  Soderini 
188 


THE  CULMINATION 

had  been  sent  to  Urbino  by  the  Florentines  to 
confer  with  the  Duke  of  Romagna,  and  Machiavelli 
accompanied  the  envoy  as  his  secretary.  It  was 
a  game  of  bluff  on  both  sides ;  for  although  Cesare 
had  no  serious  intention  of  furthering  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Medici,  he  hoped  by  threats  and  pre- 
tences to  cajole  the  Florentines  into  an  alliance 
with  him,  whilst  they,  on  their  part,  merely  desired 
to  keep  him  engaged  in  negotiations  until  the 
French  could  come  to  their  assistance.  But 
Machiavelli  had  already  formed  a  high  estimate 
of  Cesare's  powers ;  and  wrote  home  that  no 
enterprise  was  so  great  that  it  would  not  seem 
small  to  him,  that  he  despised  danger  and  fatigue, 
that  he  acted  with  such  secrecy  and  celerity  as 
to  arrive  at  one  place  before  anybody  knew  he  had 
left  the  other,  that  he  had  not  only  got  hold  of 
the  best  soldiers  in  Italy  but  had  gained  their 
goodwill,  and  that  he  was  constantly  favoured 
by  fortune.  When  a  French  contingent  arrived 
before  Arezzo  and  speedily  brought  the  rebels 
to  terms,  Cesare  promptly  threw  over  Vitelozzo 
Vitelli  and  the  Orsini,  alleging  that  they  were 
acting  on  their  own  account  and  without  any 
instructions  either  from  him  or  the  Pope.  Then, 
in  pursuance  of  his  pre-arranged  plan,  he  prepared 
to  turn  his  arms  against  Bologna. 

But  just  at  this  juncture  the  disputes  over 
Naples  recalled  Louis  XII  to  Italy  ;  and  as  soon 
as  he  arrived  at  Asti,  towards  the  end  of  July,  all 
the  enemies  of  the  House  of  Borgia,  including 
Cardinal  Orsini  from  Rome,  flocked  to  him  with 

189 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

their  complaints  and  warnings.  They  succeeded 
in  arousing  the  French  king's  suspicions,  and  as 
a  consequence  the  Duke  of  Romagna  was  at  once 
forbidden  to  proceed  against  Bologna  or  to  make 
any  further  aggressive  movements  against  any 
part  of  Tuscany.  Cesare's  counteracting  stroke 
exhibited  both  his  usual  subtlety  and  daring. 
After  a  hurried  conference  with  his  father  in 
Rome,  he  rode  off  in  disguise  to  the  French  camp 
at  Milan,  where  he  arrived  on  August  5,  and  in 
the  midst  of  the  crowd  of  the  enemies  of  himself 
and  his  family,  by  various  promises,  including  that 
of  Alexander  VI's  support  in  the  affair  of  Naples  and 
his  own  influence  to  secure  the  election  of  Cardinal 
d'Amboise  on  the  next  vacancy  of  the  Papal 
throne,  he  induced  Louis  XII  to  support  him 
(though  at  present  secretly)  in  his  designs  upon 
Bologna  and  on  the  Orsini. 

Before  this  secret  agreement  was  so  much  as 
suspected,  however,  a  conspiracy  against  Cesare 
was  formed  amongst  the  petty  tyrants  who  were 
his  best  condottiere.  They  had  become  alarmed 
at  his  rapidly  growing  power  ;  and  realising  at  last 
that  they  were  all  likely  to  be  "  devoured  by  this 
dragon  one  after  another,"  they  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity of  his  loss  of  French  support  to  rebel  against 
him.  On  October  9  they  held  a  meeting  at  the  castle 
of  La  Magione  in  Perugia,  where  those  who  were 
present,  including  many  of  the  Orsini,  several  of  the 
Baglioni,  Oliverotto  of  Fermo,  and  Vitelozzo  Vitelli, 
together  with  representatives  of  the  Montefeltri 
and  Bentivoglio  families,  all  swore  to  stand  by  one 
190 


THE  CULMINATION 

another  and  to  raise  a  combined  army  against  the 
dreaded  Borgia.  A  week  later,  with  a  force  of 
10,000  men,  they  captured  Urbino  ;  Guidobaldo 
was  reinstated  in  his  dominions  amidst  the  acclama- 
tions of  his  old  and  devoted  subjects  ;  the  sole 
survivor  of  the  Varani  re-occupied  Camerino  ;  the 
other  dispossessed  tyrants  of  the  Romagna  re- 
appeared to  reclaim  their  stolen  possessions  ;  and 
in  a  moment  the  whole  edifice  of  the  Borgian 
grandeur  seemed  tottering  to  its  fall. 

Cesare,  who  was  at  Imola,  with  no  force  at  his 
command  capable  of  giving  battle  to  the  con- 
spirators' army,  which  by  the  addition  of  Baglioni's 
troops  soon  swelled  to  12,000  men,  clearly  realised 
the  gravity  of  the  situation,  though  he  showed  no 
signs  of  perturbation  or  dismay.  He  instantly 
despatched  Don  Michelotto  and  another  Spanish 
captain  with  all  of  his  army  that  remained  faithful 
to  him,  with  instructions  to  harass  the  enemy  and 
prolong  the  conflict  as  long  as  possible  whilst  he 
set  about  collecting  a  fresh  force.  Fortunately 
for  him  the  Cardinal  of  Modena  had  just  died  (of 
poison  it  was  said),  and  the  50,000  ducats  of  his 
hoarding  which  the  Pope  had  promptly  seized 
went  a  long  way  towards  furnishing  a  formidable 
contingent  of  men-at-arms.  But  he  also  sent  an 
urgent  request  to  Louis  XII  for  the  aid  he  had 
secretly  promised ;  and  at  the  same  time  he 
endeavoured  to  effect  an  alliance  with  Florence. 
At  first  the  rebels  had  it  all  their  own  way  ;  the 
Duke's  forces  were  utterly  routed  at  Fossombrone, 
and  Don  Michelotto,  who  had  barely  escaped,  was 

191 


besieged  at  Pesaro.  But  whilst  he  held  out  news 
arrived  that  the  French  king  had  sent  a  company 
of  five  hundred  men-at-arms  under  the  command 
of  Charles  d'Amboise  to  the  Duke's  assistance, 
and  the  whole  aspect  of  affairs  was  suddenly 
changed.  With  France  at  his  back  the  rebels 
knew  well  enough,  Cesare  would  be  unconquerable. 
But  instead  of  facing  the  dismayed  conspirators 
in  the  field  the  wily  Duke  now  had  recourse  to 
diplomacy  ;  and  both  he  and  the  Pope  exerted 
all  their  craft  to  break  up  the  league  by  sowing 
dissension  amongst  its  members.  They  managed 
to  detach  the  Orsini  faction,  and  Paolo  Orsini, 
who  was  completely  deluded  and  won  over  by 
Cesare's  dissimulation,  persuaded  the  others  to  a 
treaty  of  peace.  According  to  the  terms  of  this 
agreement,  which  was  made  on  October  28,  all 
the  condottiere  agreed  to  return  to  the  service 
of  the  Duke  of  Romagna,  to  aid  him  in  the  recovery 
of  Urbino  and  Camerino  as  well  as  in  all  his  other 
enterprises,  not  to  make  war  without  his  leave, 
and  not  to  hire  themselves  to  anybody  else.  He, 
on  his  part,  undertook  to  pay  them  as  before,  and 
to  defend  them,  all  and  singular,  against  any  power 
other  than  the  Pope  or  the  King  of  France.  He 
made  a  separate  treaty  with  Giovanni  Bentivoglio 
by  which,  in  return  for  a  solemn  undertaking  not 
to  attack  Bologna,  Giovanni  agreed  to  furnish  him 
with  a  specified  contingent  of  men-at-arms.  Guido- 
baldo  of  Urbino,  finding  himself  thus  treacherously 
abandoned  by  his  late  allies,  dismantled  some  of 
his  fortresses,  and  on  December  8  once  more 
192 


THE  CULMINATION 

betook  himself  to  flight.     Young  Varano  instantly 
abandoned  Camerino  and  fled  back  to  Venice. 

Whilst  these  negotiations  were  in  progress, 
Cesare  had  secretly  gone  on  with  his  recruiting ; 
but,  in  order  that  the  number  of  his  forces  might 
not  be  discovered,  had  dispersed  the  men  as  they 
arrived  into  various  parts  of  the  Romagna.  About 
the  end  of  November  he  removed  from  Imola  to 
Cesena.  A  few  weeks  after  this  the  five  hundred 
French  lances  returned  to  Lombardy.  Nobody 
knew,  and  nobody  could  guess,  what  these  move- 
ments meant,  reports  Machiavelli,  who  was  then 
at  Cesena,  as  Florentine  envoy,  "  for  this  Duke 
never  reveals  his  intentions  before  carrying  them 
out."  A  little  later  Machiavelli  reports  another 
mysterious  and  startling  occurrence.  Don  Ramiro 
d'Orco,  Cesare's  trusted  lieutenant  in  the  Romagna, 
came  from  Pesaro  to  Cesena,  and,  to  the  amaze- 
ment of  everybody,  was  instantly  arrested  and 
thrown  into  prison.  Three  days  later  his  dead 
body,  cut  into  two  pieces,  with  a  wooden  dagger 
on  one  side  and  a  bloody  knife  on  the  other,  was 
exposed  in  the  market-place.  The  cause  of  this 
sudden  execution  was  unknown,  wrote  Machia- 
velli to  his  government  at  the  time ;  but  in  the 
seventh  chapter  of  his  Principe  written  eleven 
years  afterwards,  he  mentions  this  ferocious  act 
as  one  worthy  to  be  imitated,  and  states  its  motive. 
In  order  to  reduce  the  Romagna  to  unanimity  and 
subjection,  he  says,  it  was  necessary  to  employ 
great  severity,  and  Cesare  Borgia  appointed  Don 
Ramiro,  a  cruel  and  passionate  man,  as  fit  for  this 

N  193 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

purpose.  But  as  soon  as  Don  Ramiro's  ferocious 
conduct  had  produced  its  desired  effect  it  was  a 
good  stroke  of  policy  on  Cesare's  part  to  execute 
him,  so  as  to  make  it  appear  that  whatever 
cruelties  had  been  perpetrated  were  the  un- 
authorised actions  of  the  agent  and  abhorred  by 
the  Duke  himself. 

Cesare's  apparent  inaction  at  Cesena  puzzled 
everybody,  including  the  Pope,  who,  as  the 
Venetian  ambassador  reports,  impatiently 
exclaimed  that  he  could  not  imagine  what  the 
devil  the  Duke  was  about,  loitering  there  and 
spending  a  thousand  ducats  a  day.  But  the  silent 
and  inscrutable  dissembler  was  only  biding  his 
time.  He  had  as  yet  given  no  campaigning 
instructions  to  his  reconciled  condottiere,  although 
the  Orsini  and  Vitelli,  who,  with  their  troops, 
were  stationed  now  in  the  reconquered  duchy  of 
Urbino,  had  dutifully  sent  messengers  to  inquire 
what  enterprise  they  were  to  undertake  next. 
At  last,  tired  of  inaction,  they  sent  Oliverotto  da 
Fermo  to  suggest  either  an  expedition  into  Tuscany 
or  the  capture  of  Sinigaglia.  Cesare  replied  that 
the  Florentines  must  be  treated  as  his  friends, 
but  that  he  approved  of  their  other  proposal. 
From  the  time  of  Sixtus  IV  Sinigaglia  had  been 
in  possession  of  that  Pope's  nephew,  Giovanni 
della  Rovere,  who  had  married  a  sister  of  Guido- 
baldo  of  Urbino.  Giovanni  had  died  the  previous 
year,  and  his  heir,  Francesco  Maria,  a  boy  eleven 
years  old,  who  was  also  heir  to  the  duchy  of 
Urbino,  was  now  sheltered  in  the  town,  with  his 
194 


mother  and  under  the  care  of  his  guardian,  Andrea 
Doria.  One  reason  for  Cesare's  approval  of  the 
proposed  attack  on  this  place  doubtless  was  the 
hope  that  he  might  obtain  possession  of  this 
inconvenient  heir  and  get  rid  of  him  as  he 
had  got  rid  of  young  Astorre  Manfredi.  But  on 
the  approach  of  the  troops  of  Vitelli  and  the 
Orsini,  Andrea  Doria  sent  the  princess  and  her 
son  to  Venice,  after  which,  ordering  his  lieutenant 
to  defend  the  citadel  to  the  utmost,  he  hurried 
off  to  Florence.  The  town  was  not  able  to  hold 
out  long,  but  the  governor  of  the  citadel  defied 
all  the  efforts  of  the  condottiere,  and  declared 
he  would  deliver  up  his  keys  to  nobody  but  the 
Duke  of  Romagna  in  person.  On  receiving  a 
message  from  his  captains  to  this  effect,  Cesare 
at  once  set  out  for  Sinigaglia  with  a  force  of  11,000 
horse  and  10,000  foot,  which  he  had  ordered  to 
concentrate  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Fano,  sending 
word  in  advance  to  the  condottiere  that  he  wished 
to  confer  with  them  all  respecting  future  operations, 
but  that,  as  it  would  be  most  convenient  for  the 
men  coming  with  him  to  be  quartered  in  the 
town,  he  would  be  obliged  if  they  would  dispose 
of  theirs  in  some  of  the  most  convenient  neigh- 
bouring castles.  Everything  was  done  as  he 
desired ;  and  the  blindness  with  which  these 
past- masters  in  strategy,  treachery,  and  all  kinds 
of  deceit  fell  into  so  open  a  snare  is  not  the  least 
extraordinary  part  of  the  story. 

When  his  advance  guard  of  two  hundred  horse 
arrived  at  the  bridge  over  the  river  which  stands 

195 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

almost  over  against  the  gate  of  Sinigaglia,  they 
did  not  pass  it,  but  forming  up  to  right  and  left 
made  room  for  the  infantry,  which  marched 
immediately  into  the  town.  Vitelli,  Paolo  Orsini, 
and  the  Duke  of  Gravina  then  came  out  on  their 
mules  to  greet  Cesare,  who  rode  at  the  head  of 
his  main  body  of  cavalry.  Don  Michelotto  and 
several  other  favourites  who  could  be  trusted 
had  received  instructions  that  two  of  them  were 
to  attach  themselves  to  each  of  these  lords  and 
to  entertain  him  and  not  part  from  him  on  any 
account  until  he  was  safely  housed  in  the  Duke's 
apartments.  Perceiving  at  once  that  Oliverotto 
da  Fermo  was  missing,  Cesare  made  a  quick  sign 
to  .Don  Michelotto,  who  rode  forward  into  the 
town  to  make  sure  of  his  man,  whilst  the  Duke 
saluted  his  other  captains  with  the  winning  address 
and  charm  of  manner  which  he  so  well  knew  how 
to  employ  upon  occasion.  Michelotto  found 
Oliverotto  with  a  body  of  1000  foot  and  150  horse 
drawn  up  under  arms  in  an  open  suburb  just 
within  the  gates,  and  having  induced  him  to 
dismiss  his  men  to  their  quarters  in  case  disputes 
should  arise  by  these  being  occupied  by  Cesare's 
newly  arrived  men,  brought  him  to  pay  his  duty 
to  the  Duke  with  due  formality  without  the 
walls.  On  arriving  at  the  Duke's  quarters  they 
all  dismounted,  attended  him  ceremoniously  to 
his  apartment,  and  were  instantly  arrested. 
Having  commanded  Oliverotto's  men  in  the  town 
to  be  disarmed,  Cesare  despatched  half  his  army 
to  deal  similarly  with  the  troops  of  Vitelli  and 
196 


THE  CULMINATION 

the  Orsini,  who  were  quartered  some  six  miles 
away  ;  but  these  men,  having  heard  what  had 
happened  to  their  generals,  effected  their  escape. 
At  ten  o'clock  that  night,  Oliverotto  da  Fermo 
and  Vitelozzo  Vitelli  were  strangled.  Oliverotto 
meanly  tried  to  throw  all  the  blame  on  Vitelozzo  ; 
the  latter  scoundrel  merely  begged  that  his  Holiness 
the  Pope  might  be  supplicated  to  give  him  a 
plenary  indulgence  for  his  sins.  Paolo  Orsini  and 
the  Duke  of  Gravina  were  kept  as  prisoners 
until  Cesare  was  assured  that  the  Pope  had  been 
able  to  seize  the  Orsini  who  were  in  Rome.  As 
soon  as  he  learned  that  this  had  been  done,  on 
January  18,  1503,  they  were  strangled  after  the 
same  manner  as  the  others.  It  was  a  master- 
stroke of  cunning.  After  making  use  of  his 
enemies  to  reinstate  him  in  his  dominions,  he  had 
got  rid  of  them  all  at  one  blow.  And  he  took 
care  to  justify  the  stratagem  he  had  used  by 
sending  envoys  to  all  the  powers  of  Italy  alleging 
(what  is  likely  enough)  that  he  had  only  anti- 
cipated a  set  of  secret  conspirators  who  were 
merely  waiting  their  opportunity  to  rise  and 
assassinate  him. 

Cesare's  motions  were  rapid  enough  now.  On 
January  1,  1503,  the  day  after  the  executions  at 
Sinigaglia,  his  army  was  on  the  march  towards 
Siena,  whither  had  escaped  Pandolfo  Petrucci, 
whom  Cesare  considered  as  the  brain  of  the  con- 
spiracy. All  the  petty  tyrants  fled  at  his  approach 
as  from  the  path  of  a  hydra.  He  placed  a  garrison 
in  Citta  di  Castello,  which  had  been  abandoned 

197 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

by  the  Vitelli ;  and  placed  a  regent,  on  behalf 
of  the  Church,  in  Perugia,  which  surrendered  to 
him  on  January  6,  after  the  flight  of  Gianpaolo 
Baglioni,  but  he  continued  his  march  without 
troubling  to  enter  the  city.  He  ravaged  the 
country  round  Siena,  and  threatened  to  attack 
the  city  itself  unless  Pandolfo  Petrucci  were 
instantly  banished.  But  on  January  28  Pandolfo 
agreed  to  depart  if  given  a  safe  conduct,  and 
Cesare  was  compelled  to  be  satisfied  with  this, 
because  France  had  forbidden  him  to  attack  the 
place,  and  his  father,  troubled  by  an  unexpected 
revolt  of  the  barons,  had  urgently  summoned  him 
to  Rome.  Notwithstanding  the  safe  conduct, 
however,  he  despatched  a  band  of  fifty  armed 
men  after  Pandolfo,  with  orders  to  take  him  dead 
or  alive ;  and  the  Sienese  tyrant  only  escaped 
because  the  Florentine  commissary,  ignorant  of 
their  business,  arrested  the  pursuers  and  kept 
them  prisoners  until  he  could  receive  instructions 
from  headquarters. 

Whilst  Cesare  was  thus  occupied  in  the  Romagna, 
the  Pope  had  not  failed  to  play  his  part  in  Rome. 
He  had  collected  money  and  men  and  artillery  ; 
he  had  used  all  his  artifice  in  diplomatic  negotia- 
tions with  France  and  with  the  league  of  con- 
spirators, and  he  had  prudently  fortified  Civita 
Castellana  as  a  refuge  in  case  of  need.  But  these 
grave  and  weighty  matters  by  no  means  exhausted 
the  energies  of  this  old  libertine,  who  had  all 
but  completed  his  seventy-first  year.  He  got  up 
festivals  and  processions  and  masquerades  to  amuse 
198 


THE  CULMINATION 

the  people  (and  himself)  and  to  distract  attention 
from  his  more  serious  designs.  Burchard  solemnly 
notes  down  in  his  diary  the  highly  indecent  details 
of  one  of  these  masquerades,  which  paraded  in 
the  Piazza  of  St.  Peter  whilst  the  amused  Pope 
watched  it  from  one  of  his  palace  windows.  And 
Giustiniani,  the  Venetian  ambassador,  wrote  home 
reporting  that  Alexander  went  to  the  races, 
attended  performances  of  plays  in  company  with 
his  cardinals,  and  kept  up  his  customary  diversions 
in  the  Vatican,  where  certain  fair  ladies  whom  his 
Holiness  favoured  often  remained  the  whole  night 
long. 

Immediately  after  Cesare's  treaty  of  reconcilia- 
tion with  his  condottiere  the  Pope  had  cajoled 
Cardinal  Orsini  to  Rome ;  and  keener-sighted 
courtiers  shrugged  their  shoulders  when  they  saw 
the  deluded  Prelate  feasting  and  gambling  and 
taking  part  in  all  the  other  amusements  of  the 
Vatican  in  blissful  unconsciousness  of  the  net  in 
which  he  had  entangled  himself.  On  January  3, 
1503,  Alexander,  having  received  private  intelli- 
gence of  what  Cesare  had  done  at  Sinigaglia, 
sent  a  message  to  Cardinal  Orsini  informing  him 
of  the  fall  of  that  town  and  requesting  his  presence 
to  confer  on  the  subject.  The  unsuspecting  victim 
hastened  to  the  Vatican  to  tender  his  congratula- 
tions, and  was  met  on  the  way  and  accompanied 
as  though  by  accident  by  the  governor  of  the  city 
and  an  escort  of  soldiers.  As  soon  as  he  had 
entered  the  Sala  del  Papagallo,  Orsini  was  sur- 
rounded by  armed  men  and  conducted  to  the 

199 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Torre  Borgia,  whence,  after  a  short  time,  he  was 
transferred  to  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo.  Alexander 
instantly  seized  the  cardinal's  palace,  confiscated 
all  his  treasure,  and  turned  his  mother,  an  old 
woman  eighty  years  of  age,  into  the  street.  In 
vain  some  of  the  cardinals  interceded  for  their 
colleague.  Alexander  declared  him  to  be  a  traitor, 
whose  complicity  in  the  plot  against  the  Duke  of 
Romagna  could  not  be  allowed  to  go  unpunished. 
Rinaldo  Orsini,  Archbishop  of  Florence,  and  the 
prothonotary  Orsini,  together  with  several  relatives 
and  adherents  of  the  family,  were  arrested  and 
imprisoned  at  the  same  time.  So  many  other 
arrests  quickly  followed  that  whoever  had  any 
money  thought  it  might  be  his  turn  next,  and 
the  number  who,  in  consequence,  fled  from  the 
city  was  so  great  that  in  order  to  stop  the  panic 
Alexander  was  obliged  to  summon  the  Conservators 
and  assure  them  that  as  all  the  guilty  ones  had 
now  been  secured  there  was  nothing  to  prevent 
everybody  else  enjoying  the  carnival. 

At  first  Cardinal  Orsini  was  allowed  to  lodge 
with  the  Governor  of  St.  Angelo  and  to  have  his 
food  sent  in  by  his  mother,  but  as  this  arrange- 
ment was  very  soon  countermanded,  the  anxious 
old  lady  endeavoured  to  regain  this  favour  for  her 
son  by  sending  to  the  Pope  a  large  and  valuable 
pearl  that  he  was  known  to  covet.  Alexander 
accepted  the  jewel,  but  made  no  difference  in  the 
treatment  of  his  prisoner.  On  February  23  the 
cardinal  died,  and  so  general  was  the  suspicion  of 
poisoning  that  next  day  the  Pope's  physicians 
200 


THE  CULMINATION 

were  called  upon  to  give  their  assurance  that 
Orsini  had  died  a  natural  death.  The  poisoning 
is  not  conclusively  proved,  although,  of  course, 
this  piece  of  evidence  to  the  contrary  is  obviously 
of  little  value.  It  was  remembered  that,  next  to 
Cardinal  Ascanio  Sforza,  Cardinal  Orsini  had  been 
most  instrumental  in  raising  Rodrigo  Borgia  to 
the  Papal  throne.  The  one  was  now  dead,  the 
other  languishing  in  a  French  prison,  and  all  the 
worldly  goods  of  both  were  in  the  possession  of  the 
Borgia. 

Immediately  after  the  Cardinal's  arrest  the  Pope 
had  sent  his  son  Giuffre  to  take  possession  of  Monte 
Rotundo  and  other  Orsini  strongholds.  This 
determined  the  remainder  of  the  family  to  make 
a  final  effort  to  preserve  themselves  from  utter 
destruction.  Combining  with  the  Savelli  and  some 
of  the  Colonna  they  intrenched  themselves  in  Ceri 
and  the  impregnable  fortress  of  Bracciano.  Mutio 
Colonna  and  Silvio  Savelli  seized  upon  Palombara ; 
and  on  January  23  the  united  barons  attacked 
the  Ponte  Nomentano.  They  were  driven  back, 
but  Alexander  was  so  alarmed  that  he  barricaded 
the  Vatican  and  recalled  Giuffre  to  the  city.  On 
February  20  he  advised  his  cardinals  to  fortify 
their  palaces  also,  as  there  was  reason  to  fear 
another  attack  of  the  Orsini,  and  he  sent  urgent 
messages  to  Cesare  begging  him  to  come  without 
any  further  delay.  The  terrible  Duke  was  already 
on  the  march,  devastating  the  country  and 
committing  all  sorts  of  atrocities  as  he  came 
along.  Acquapendente,  Montefiascore,  and  Viterbo 

201 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

suffered  severely  at  his  hands  ;  and  at  San  Quirico, 
whence  all  the  inhabitants  had  fled  except  two  old 
men  and  nine  old  women,  he  is  reported  to  have 
had  these  miserable  creatures  strung  up  over  a 
slow  fire  in  order  to  make  them  reveal  where  the 
absconding  people  had  hid  their  treasures  ;  which, 
as  they  did  not  know,  they  could  not  tell,  and 
were  accordingly  left  to  be  slowly  roasted  to  death. 
On  February  26,  accompanied  only  by  a  few 
servants  and  masked,  Cesare  entered  Rome,  and 
was  recognised  that  evening  at  the  representation 
of  a  comedy  in  the  Vatican. 

On  his  way  to  Rome  Cesare  had  captured  all 
the  Orsini  fortresses  except  Ceri  and  Bracciano, 
which  he  would  not  attack  because  they  were 
under  the  express  protection  of  France.  But  the 
Pope  was  not  to  be  deterred  by  this  from  com- 
pleting his  destruction  of  the  family,  and  he  now 
went  through  the  farce  of  issuing  a  Brief  threaten- 
ing the  apparently  reluctant  Cesare  with  excom- 
munication unless  he  proceeded  against  these 
strongholds  also.  At  the  same  time  he  made 
cunning  proposals  to  Giovanni  Giordano  Orsini  to 
exchange  these  places  for  the  principality  of 
Squillace  or  for  some  territory  in  the  March  of 
Ancona.  On  April  4  Orsini  concluded  an  armistice 
and  appealed  to  the  mediation  of  the  King  of 
France.  But  affairs  in  Naples  were  going  badly 
for  Louis  XII.  In  April  the  Spaniards  obtained 
a  brilliant  victory  over  his  forces  in  Apulia,  and 
on  May  16  Gonsalvo  de  Cordova  entered  the 
Neapolitan  capital  in  triumph.  The  Pope  ac- 
202 


THE  CULMINATION 

cordingly  showed  a  leaning  towards  Spain,  and 
Cesare  was  in  a  much  better  position  for  extorting 
concessions  from  Louis  XII  in  return  for  the 
promise  of  his  assistance.  But  the  French  reverses 
in  Naples  promised  to  be  of  even  greater  advantage 
than  this  to  Cesare,  and  indeed  opened  an  entirely 
new  prospect  before  him.  Without  French  support 
he  could  never  have  attained  to  his  present  pitch 
of  greatness  and  power.  Yet  the  jealousy  of 
Louis  XII  had  been  the  only  effective  check  upon 
his  designs  against  Tuscany  and  his  secret  ambition 
of  founding  a  Borgian  kingdom  of  Central  Italy. 
Consequently,  he  began  to  look  about  for  new 
allies  in  order  to  render  himself  independent  of 
the  French  king. 

The  most  pressing  need  was  money,  and  both 
the  Pope  and  his  son  set  about  getting  it  by  every 
means  in  their  power.  As  early  as  March  the 
Venetian  ambassador  had  reported  the  creation  of 
eighty  new  offices  in  the  Curia,  which  were  sold 
at  670  ducats  apiece,  adding,  "  if  your  Highness 
will  cast  up  the  sum  you  will  see  how  much  money 
the  Pope  has  secured."  In  May  nine  new  cardinals 
were  created,  five  of  whom  were  Spaniards, 
including  two  relations  of  the  Borgia.  Most  of 
them,  reports  the  Venetian  ambassador,  were  men 
of  doubtful  reputation,  and  all  of  them  had  paid 
handsomely  for  their  elevation,  so  that  by  this 
means  a  further  120  to  130  thousand  ducats  were 
got  together.  But  this  was  not  sufficient  and 
other  expedients  were  resorted  to.  On  the  night 
of  April  10  Cardinal  Giovanni  Michiel,  nephew 

203 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

of  Paul  II,  died  after  two  days  of  violent  vomiting, 
and  even  Pastor,  who  acquits  Cesare  of  many  of 
the  crimes  charged  against  him  by  his  contem- 
poraries, is  constrained  to  admit  that  he  poisoned 
this  cardinal  in  order  to  obtain  the  money  he 
wanted  so  badly.  Before  dawn  next  day  Michiel's 
palace  was  stripped  by  order  of  the  Pope,  and, 
according  to  Giustiniani,  property  worth  150,000 
ducats  was  removed  to  the  Vatican.  On  June  8 
the  corpse  of  Giacomo  Santa  Croce,  who  had  paid 
20,000  ducats  for  his  life  at  the  time  of  the  arrest 
of  Cardinal  Orsini  six  months  previously,  was 
exposed  headless  on  the  bridge  of  St.  Angelo, 
and  all  his  possessions  went  to  swell  the  war-chest 
of  the  rapacious  Borgia.  Don  Michelotto  went 
about  the  city  with  a  band  of  armed  men,  forcing 
his  way  into  houses  where  it  was  expected  money 
might  be  found,  arresting  the  occupants  on  the 
pretext  that  they  were  Jews  or  Marani,  and  then 
selling  the  prisoners  their  lives  for  as  large  a 
ransom  as  could  be  raised.  A  week  or  two  before 
this,  the  Pope's  favourite  secretary,  Troccio,  had 
fled  from  the  Vatican.  It  was  said  that  in  revenge 
for  having  been  omitted  from  the  last  batch  of 
cardinals  he  had  revealed  the  secret  negotiations 
going  on  between  the  Vatican  and  Spain.  He 
was  captured  on  board  a  vessel  bound  for  Corsica, 
and,  having  been  brought  back  to  Rome,  was 
strangled  by  Michelotto  in  the  presence  of  Duke 
Cesare.  There  were  other  reasons  than  money  for 
this  murder,  but  of  course  all  his  effects  went  to 
the  Pope.  On  August  1  Giovanni  Borgia,  cardinal 
204 


THE  CULMINATION 

of  Moureale,  died  suddenly,  and  it  was  generally 
thought  that  Cesare  had  poisoned  him.  However 
that  may  be,  his  death  brought  the  Pope  another 
100,000  ducats  at  a  very  convenient  time,  and 
Giustiniani  reports  that  his  Holiness  wore  a  very 
cheerful  aspect  notwithstanding  that  Moureale  was 
his  own  nephew. 

Cesare  Borgia,  who  was  looked  upon  as  a  man 
of  almost  superhuman  sagacity  as  well  as  a  prime 
favourite  of  fortune,  had  now,  whilst  yet  under 
thirty  years  of  age,  raised  himself  by  crime  and 
treachery  and  subtle  diplomacy  and  unparalleled 
audacity  to  a  high  position  amongst  contemporary 
potentates.  At  the  head  of  a  considerable  and 
successful  army,  and  backed  by  all  the  wealth  and 
influence  of  the  Holy  See,  he  was  undoubtedly 
the  most  formidable  power  in  Italy.  Nor  did 
anybody  know  how  much  further  his  vaulting 
ambition  might  not  carry  him.  His  father,  who 
was  in  robust  health  and  bade  fair  to  rule  in  the 
Vatican  for  several  years  to  come,  had  been  suc- 
cessful in  all  his  undertakings.  He  had  subdued 
the  city  of  Rome,  annihilated  the  factious  barons 
who  had  kept  preceding  Popes  in  awe,  wrested  all 
the  various  towns  of  the  Papal  States  from  their 
petty  tyrants,  reduced  the  College  of  Cardinals  to 
a  subservient  assembly  for  the  registration  of  his 
decrees,  and  had  at  last  himself  become  little 
more  than  a  willing  instrument  for  carrying  out 
the  more  imperious  decrees  of  his  terrible  son. 

At  the  moment  the  Pope  and  his  son  were 
obliged  to  play  a  waiting  game,  for  they  had 

205 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

many  different  schemes  in  hand,  any  one  of  which 
might  have  to  be  settled  upon  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  others  according  to  the  turn  of  events  ;  and 
accordingly  their  diplomacy  was  more  than  usually 
shifty,  and  appeared  to  many  unaccountably 
vacillating.  Alexander  would  have  bestowed  upon 
Cesare  the  title  of  King  of  Romagna  and  the 
March  were  it  not  that  the  King  of  France,  whose 
large  army  was  just  about  to  march  through 
Tuscany  and  the  Papal  States  to  continue  his 
struggle  with  Spain  in  Naples,  would  inevitably 
have  opposed  this,  seeing  that  a  Borgian  monarchy, 
with  Rome  as  its  centre,  and  all  Christendom 
liable  to  be  covertly  laid  under  contribution 
for  its  finances,  would  have  been  altogether  too 
formidable  an  ally.  It  was  perhaps  on  this  account 
that  Louis  XII  tentatively  suggested  that  he 
might  cede  the  whole  of  Naples  to  the  Pope  as  a 
monarchy  for  Cesare  in  exchange  for  Bologna  and 
the  Romagna.  This  was  not  altogether  to 
Alexander's  liking,  although,  in  negotiating  for 
something  else  with  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  he 
said  that,  in  default  of  other  satisfactory  arrange- 
ments, he  would  be  obliged  to  accept  the  offer. 
What  he  proposed  to  France  as  an  alternative  was 
that  provided  either  Naples  or  Sicily  were  given 
to  Cesare  he  would  support  Louis  with  men  and 
money  against  Spain,  and  also  allow  him  to  take 
whatever  he  liked  in  Northern  Italy.  At  the  same 
time,  in  case  the  French  forces  should  have  no 
better  fortune  than  before,  he  made  overtures  to 
the  Spanish  king  likewise,  who,  in  return  for  the 
206 


THE  CULMINATION 

Pope's  support  against  France  was  ready  to  leave 
him  a  free  hand  in  Tuscany.  And  in  furtherance 
of  this  last-named  plan  he  used  every  effort  to 
obtain  Cesare's  investiture  of  Pisa,  Siena,  and 
Lucca  from  the  Emperor.  In  apparent  contra- 
diction to  the  whole  of  this,  however,  he  made 
passionate  proposals  to  Venice  to  join  with  him 
for  the  love  of  God  in  a  league  against  both  France 
and  Spain  in  order  to  deliver  their  common  country 
from  foreigners.  But  while  the  Pope  and  his  son 
seemed  thus,  in  one  way  or  another,  to  be  on  the 
very  point  of  attaining  the  highest  object  of  their 
ambition,  a  sudden  and  unprovided  for  event 
destroyed  the  whole  web  of  the  Borgian  diplomacy. 
On  Saturday,  August  12,  both  the  Pope  and  the 
Duke  of  Romagna  fell  ill  of  the  same  complaint. 
Cesare's  youth  and  strength  of  constitution  enabled 
him  to  survive,  although,  owing  to  another  disease 
from  which  he  was  already  suffering,  he  remained 
for  some  weeks  in  a  state  of  great  prostration. 
But  on  the  18th,  after  confessing  and  receiving 
the  Holy  Communion,  the  Pope  expired. 


207 


VIII 
THE  DOWNFALL 

THE  suspicious  circumstance  of  the  Pope  and  his 
son  having  been  seized  with  a  sudden  and  violent 
sickness  soon  after  a  supper  in  the  vineyard  of 
Cardinal  Adriano  of  Corneto,  and  of  their  host 
having  been  attacked  with  the  same  malady  at  the 
same  time,  gave  rise  to  a  dramatic  story  of  poison- 
ing, which  was  credited  by  the  contemporary 
historians  Guicciardini,  Bembo,  Giovio,  Metarazzo, 
Sanuto,  and  Volterranus  amongst  others,  and  which 
remained  unquestioned  until  shown  to  be  un- 
tenable by  the  more  discriminating  historians  of 
a  later  time.  There  are  several,  not  altogether 
accordant,  versions  of  the  story,  of  which  the  best- 
known  is  that  of  Guicciardini.  After  remarking 
that  everybody  knew  it  to  be  the  usual  practice 
both  of  the  Pope  and  his  son  to  poison  not  only 
those  they  resolved  to  sacrifice  to  their  revenge 
or  jealousy  but  also  any  person  of  great  wealth, 
whether  cardinal  or  courtier,  whose  riches  tempted 
their  avarice,  this  historian  relates  that  Cesare 
had  decided  to  poison  the  Cardinal  of  Corneto, 
and  for  that  purpose  had  sent  up  some  flasks  of 
envenomed  wine  to  Corneto's  vineyard,  where  he 
and  his  father  had  invited  themselves  to  supper. 
208 


THE  DOWNFALL 

The  wine  was  entrusted  to  a  servant  who  knew 
nothing  of  his  master's  purpose,  and  who  was  told 
not  to  open  the  flasks  for  anybody  without  special 
instructions  to  do  so.     But  the  Pope  happening 
to  arrive  before  the  time  for  supper,  and  being 
very  thirsty  on  account  of  the  great  heat,  at  once 
asked    for    something    to    drink.      The    servant, 
imagining  the  poisoned  wine  to  have  been  reserved 
because  it  was  particularly  choice,  brought  some 
of  it  to  his  Holiness.     The  Duke  arrived  whilst  his 
father   was   drinking,    and   being   thirsty   himself, 
also  took  a  copious  draught  of  the  deadly  potion  ; 
and  both  of  them  were  soon  carried  back  to  the 
Vatican  in  a  critical  condition.     Marino  Sanuto's 
version  is   different,   and   more   minutely   circum- 
stantial.    He  says  that   the  Cardinal  of   Corneto, 
having  received  a  message  one  morning  that  the 
Pope  and  the  Duke  of  Romagna  intended  to  visit 
him  that  evening  and  bring  their  supper  with  them, 
was  terrified  at  the  intelligence,  because  he  sus- 
pected at  once  that  they  meant  to  poison  him  in 
order   to   obtain   possession   of   his   great   wealth. 
The   frightened   cardinal   sent   an   urgent   private 
message  to  the  Pope's  chief  carver  to  come  to  his 
palace   as   soon   as   possible,    and    on   the   man's 
arrival  placed  ten  golden  ducats  in  his  hand  as  a 
preliminary  fee,  and  promised  a  more  substantial 
reward  if  the  fellow  would  save  his  life  by  revealing 
the  method  of  poisoning  which  was  to  be  employed 
against  him.     The  carver  was  won  over,  and  he 
told  the  cardinal  that  after  supper  three  boxes  of 
confectionery  were  to  be  placed  on  the  table,  one 

o  209 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

before  the  Pope,  one  before  the  Duke,  and  a  third, 
which  had  been  poisoned,  before  his  eminence. 
Corneto  then  boldly  proposed  that  the  carver  should 
change  the  boxes  and  place  the  poisoned  one  before 
the  Pope  so  that  he  might  eat  of  it  and  die.  At 
first  the  man  was  horrified  by  such  a  suggestion, 
but  eventually  he  was  induced  to  agree  by  a  bribe 
of  10,000  ducats  in  gold.  Finally,  however,  a 
different  procedure  was  adopted,  either  because 
even  so  heavy  a  bribe  could  not  screw  the  carver's 
courage  up  to  the  pitch  of  slaying  the  Vicar  of 
Christ  with  his  own  hands,  or  because  the  cardinal 
was  desirous  of  making  assurance  doubly  sure. 
When  the  Pope  and  the  Duke  arrived,  Corneto 
threw  himself  on  his  knees,  and  protesting  that  it 
was  not  respectful  for  a  servant  to  sit  at  the  same 
table  as  his  lord,  begged  as  a  favour  that  he  might 
be  allowed  to  wait  upon  his  Holiness.  The  request 
being  granted  and  the  supper  over,  Cardinal 
Adriano  brought  forward  the  boxes  of  sweetmeats, 
and  having  carefully  placed  the  one  containing  the 
poison  before  the  Pope,  ate  without  apprehension 
from  that  which  was  allotted  to  himself.  "  Next 
morning,"  says  Sanuto,  spoiling  a  fine  circumstan- 
tial fiction  with  a  glaring  and  easily  detected 
inaccuracy,  "the  Pope  died." 

It  is  true  that  the  Pope  and  his  son  did  have 
supper  in  Cardinal  Adriano's  vineyard  on  the 
evening  of  August  5,  and  that  both  of  them,  as 
well  as  their  host,  were  seized  with  sudden  and 
dangerous  illness  not  very  long  afterwards.  But 
the  fact  that  the  malady  did  not  show  itself  until 
210 


THE  DOWNFALL 

after  the  expiration  of  seven  days,  and  that  when 
it  did  appear  the  symptoms  were  those  of  the  well- 
known  "  tertian "  then  unusually  prevalent  in 
Rome,  would  be  enough  to  dispose  of  the  fore- 
going ingenious  fiction  even  if  there  were  no  other 
evidence  to  the  contrary.  And  there  is  other 
evidence ;  for  the  despatches  of  the  Venetian  and 
other  ambassadors,  who  sent  off  bulletins  to  their 
several  governments  every  day,  from  the  12th  to 
the  18th  of  the  month,  reporting  the  progress  of 
the  Pope's  illness,  make  it  abundantly  clear  that 
he  was  suffering  from  the  malaria  which  was  then 
exceptionally  severe  in  Rome,  and  had  attacked 
almost  the  whole  court,  owing  in  great  measure, 
as  they  declared,  to  the  bad  air  of  the  Papal  palace. 
The  origin  of  the  story  may  have  been  partly  due 
to  the  fact  that  Alexander's  corpse  was  so  hideously 
disfigured  by  rapid  decomposition  as  almost  to  have 
lost  the  semblance  of  humanity  within  twenty-four 
hours.  The  face  was  black,  the  swollen  tongue 
protruded  from  the  gaping  mouth,  and  the  body 
had  become  almost  as  broad  as  it  was  long — 
symptoms  at  that  time  thought  to  be  sure  marks 
of  poison.  The  persistency  of  the  story,  in  spite 
of  the  explicit  evidence  of  Giustiniani,  Soderini 
and  Burchard  to  the  contrary,  may  perhaps  be 
accounted  for  by  a  natural  wish  to  believe  that 
this  detested  Pope,  who  was  credited  with  having 
cleared  so  many  people  out  of  his  way  by  a  dose 
of  poison,  had  at  last  met  with  poetical  justice 
and  been  hoist  with  his  own  petard. 

The  Borgian  apologists'  contention  that  the  life 

211 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

of  Alexander  VI  was  no  worse  and  no  more  shock- 
ing to  his  contemporaries  than  that  of  other  Popes 
and  Princes  of  his  era  is  confuted,  amongst  other 
ways,  by  the  legends  which  instantly  grew  up 
about  his  death.  Not  only  was  the  poisoning 
generally  believed,  but  people  went  about  whisper- 
ing that  this  had  been  contrived  by  the  Devil,  who 
had  carried  off  the  wicked  Pope's  soul  in  the  form 
of  an  ape.  The  Marquis  of  Mantua,  who  was  at 
the  head-quarters  of  the  French  army  a  few  miles 
from  Rome  at  the  time,  wrote  home  to  his  wife  on 
September  22  saying  that,  during  his  illness  the 
Pope  had  talked  in  such  a  way  as  to  lead  his 
attendants  to  suppose  he  was  delirious,  calling  out, 
"  I  will  come  ;  it  is  but  right ;  wait  yet  a  little 
while."  But  those  who  were  in  the  secret  knew 
that  during  the  conclave  following  the  death  of 
Innocent  VIII,  Rodrigo  Borgia  had  purchased  the 
Papacy  from  the  Devil  at  the  price  of  his  soul. 
According  to  this  agreement,  he  was  to  occupy 
St.  Peter's  chair  for  twelve  years — which  he  did, 
says  the  Marquis,  with  the  addition  of  four  days. 
And  some  people  say  that  seven  devils  were  seen 
in  his  chamber  at  the  moment  when  he  gave  up  the 
ghost.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  anybody  could 
be  persuaded  to  dress  his  corpse,  and  next  morning 
strangers  had  to  be  hired  to  remove  it  to  St.  Peter's. 
Then,  says  Guicciardini,  the  whole  of  Rome  ran 
with  indescribable  gladness  to  feast  their  eyes  on 
the  carcass  of  the  dead  serpent,  whose  unbounded 
ambition,  vile  treachery,  horrid  cruelty,  insatiable 
avarice,  and  monstrous  lust  had  filled  the  world 
212 


THE  DOWNFALL 

with  venom.  After  twenty-four  hours  the  hideous 
and  corrupt  corpse  was  dragged  by  a  rope,  because 
nobody  would  touch  it,  from  its  bed  to  the  chapel 
de  febribus.  It  had  then  swelled  too  large  for  the 
coffin  that  had  been  made  for  it,  and  the  under- 
taker's men,  covering  it  with  a  cloth,  battered  it 
in  by  main  force,  brutally  jesting  the  while.  The 
Marquis  Gonzaga  wrote  to  his  wife  that  the  Pope's 
funeral  was  more  wretched  than  that  of  any 
Mantuan  beggar.  No  monument  was  erected  over 
his  burial-place,  and  the  sarcophagus  now  shown 
as  his  in  the  crypt  of  the  Vatican  is  believed  to  be 
that  of  his  uncle  Calixtus  III. 

Alexander  VI,  according  to  the  judgment  of  his 
contemporaries,  was  a  monster  of  iniquity,  the 
worst  Pope  who  had  ever  sat  in  St.  Peter's  chair. 
Guicciardini  charges  him  with  being  impure  to  an 
unexampled  degree,  destitute  of  religious  faith, 
without  probity,  barbarously  cruel  to  his  foes, 
meanly  ungrateful  to  the  friends  by  whose  aid  he 
had  risen  to  power,  false  to  all,  and  without  a 
particle  of  shame  ;  with  being  animated  by  in- 
satiable avarice,  immoderate  lust  of  dominion,  and 
an  ardent  desire  to  exalt  at  any  cost  a  number  of 
children  who  were  as  bad  as  himself.  But  he  was 
also  endowed  with  extraordinary  acuteness  and 
sagacity,  with  a  wonderful  capacity  for  suggesting 
subtle  expedients  in  council,  and  with  a  surprising 
dexterity  and  energy  in  the  carrying  out  of  his 
projects.  Although  his  aims  were  always  high, 
his  attainments  never  fell  short  of  his  expectations  ; 
and  his  sins  met  with  no  due  punishment  in  this 

213 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

world,  for,  from  early  youth  to  the  day  of  his 
death,  his  career  was  one  continuous  course  of 
prosperity.  As  to  Alexander's  political  character, 
the  testimony  of  Machiavelli  is  to  much  the  same 
effect,  although  expressed  without  Guicciardini's 
indignation  and  moral  disapprobation.  In  the 
eighteenth  chapter  of  his  celebrated  Principe  he 
quotes  this  Pope  as  a  striking  example  of  his 
contention  that  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  for 
a  prince  to  be  able  to  disguise  his  sentiments  and 
intentions,  and  not  to  keep  his  word  when  it  would 
be  to  his  prejudice  so  to  do,  since  "  he  who  best 
acts  the  fox  will  achieve  the  greatest  success." 
Alexander  VI,  he  calmly  declares  with  implicit 
admiration,  never  dealt  with  anybody  without 
cheating ;  no  man  ever  promised  things  more 
explicitly  or  confirmed  his  promises  with  stronger 
oaths ;  and  no  man  ever  observed  his  promises 
less ;  yet,  because  he  understood  the  world  and 
knew  how  to  play  the  hypocrite  well,  his  policy 
never  miscarried. 

The  judgment  of  some  modern  historians  has 
been  more  favourable.  In  1805  Roscoe  not  only 
defended  Lucrezia  Borgia  but  ventured  to  put  in 
a  good  word  for  her  father  as  well ;  although, 
indeed,  he  did  not  go  very  far,  contenting  himself 
with  the  declaration  that  Alexander's  crimes  had 
been  exaggerated,  and  that  he  was  endowed  with 
a  number  of  good  qualities  which  ought  not  to  be 
passed  over  in  silence.  Domenico  Cerri's  Borgia 
ossia  Alessandro  VI  Papa  e  suoi  contemporanei,  in 
1858,  and  the  Abbe  Ollivier's  Le  Pape  Alexandre  VI 
214 


THE  DOWNFALL 

et  Us  Borgia,  in  1870,  as  well  as  certain  more  recent 
fantastic  and  futile  attempts  to  represent  Rodrigo 
Borgia  as  a  pattern  of  virtue  deserving  our  reverent 
admiration,  are  not  worth  serious  notice.  But  it 
is  rather  astonishing  to  find  so  much  leniency 
towards  Alexander  displayed  by  Mandell  Creighton, 
whose  "  History  of  the  Papacy  "  is  a  monument 
of  historical  accuracy,  and  in  the  main  of  judicious 
and  impartial  judgment.  Whilst  absolving  him 
from  some  of  the  vilest  of  the  crimes  that  have  been 
laid  to  his  charge,  Creighton  lays  great  stress  upon 
the  facts  that  Alexander  was  not  forgetful  of  the 
formal  duties  of  his  office  ;  that  he  did  but  carry 
on  the  secularisation  of  the  Papacy  which  had  been 
begun  by  Sixtus  IV ;  that  he  was  the  only  man  in 
Italy  who  seemed  to  know  what  he  wanted  ;  that 
there  was  little  moral  sense  in  Europe  at  that  time 
to  be  shocked  by  either  his  public  or  his  private 
life  ;  that  political  perfidy  was  universal  in  Italy 
in  his  time ;  and  he  comes  finally  to  the  strange 
conclusion  that  the  exceptional  infamy  attaching 
to  Alexander's  name  is  due  to  his  want  of  hypocrisy. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Roman  Catholic  historian 
Pastor  candidly  acknowledges  the  impossibility  of 
rehabilitating  Alexander  VI.  Although  modern 
critical  research  has  rejected  some  of  the  worst 
accusations  made  against  this  Pope,  he  says,  so 
much  has  been  clearly  proved,  and  it  is  so  useless 
to  attempt  to  deny  his  immoralities,  both  before 
and  after  his  elevation  to  the  Papal  throne,  that 
the  modern  attempts  at  "  whitewashing  "  him  are 
"  unworthy  tampering  with  the  truth."  The  other 

215 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

most  eminent  modern  historians  who  have  devoted 
special  attention  to  the  Borgia  are  the  German, 
Gregorovius,  and  the  Italian,  Villari.  Both  arrive 
at  a  verdict  which  differs  little  from  that  of 
Guicciardini. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Alexander  VI  was  a 
past-master  in  cunning  diplomacy  ;  but  he  had 
neither  the  political  aims  nor  the  political  genius 
of  a  Sixtus  IV  or  a  Julius  II.  His  ruling  passion, 
and  the  one  motive  of  his  whole  policy,  was  love 
of  his  children  ;  for  the  sake  of  whose  aggrandise- 
ment he  committed  crime  after  crime,  without 
scruple  and  without  remorse.  He  desired  to  leave 
the  whole  of  the  ecclesiastical  states  as  an  hereditary 
possession  in  his  family ;  and  in  the  pursuit  of  this 
object  he  compassed  the  ruin  and  death  of  most  of 
the  Roman  nobles  and  feudatory  princes.  He 
subjected  Italy  to  one  desolating  invasion  after 
another,  and  ultimately  surrendered  it  to  foreigners, 
with  the  sole  object  of  providing  for  his  bastards 
in  the  consequent  confusion.  Roscoe  alleged  that 
whatever  Alexander's  other  demerits  may  have 
been,  at  least  he  governed  wisely  and  for  the  benefit 
of  the  common  people  in  the  Eternal  City.  But 
even  this  cannot  be  allowed  him.  Rafael  Volter- 
ranus,  a  reliable  contemporary,  declares  that  justice 
was  extinct  in  Rome  under  Alexander  ;  that  no 
street  was  safe  at  night  on  account  of  robbers  ; 
that  the  place  swarmed  with  spies  and  informers  ; 
and  that  the  slightest  expression  of  dissatisfaction 
with  the  Borgian  rule  was  punished  with  death. 
Similarly,  Cardinal  Egidio  of  Viterbo,  another  con- 
216 


THE  DOWNFALL 

temporary,  testifies  that  to  own  money  or  valuable 
property  in  Rome  during  Alexander's  reign  was 
equivalent  to  being  guilty  of  high  treason. 

The  Borgian  apologists  have  laid  great  stress 
upon  Alexander's  orthodox  belief  and  careful  ob- 
servance of  all  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  his 
office.  He  greatly  revered  the  Blessed  Virgin,  we 
are  told,  under  whose  special  protection  he  believed 
himself  to  be.  It  is  to  him  we  are  indebted  for  the 
daily  ringing  of  the  Angelus.  By  inventing  the 
Index  Expurgatorius,  we  are  assured,  he  exhibited 
his  zeal  for  pure  and  uncorrupt  doctrine ;  and  by 
enjoining  Spain  to  send  missionaries  to  the  newly 
discovered  America  he  showed  his  anxiety  for  the 
diffusion  of  the  Christian  faith  throughout  the 
world.  Wherefore,  they  argue,  the  crimes  and 
misdemeanours  charged  against  him  must  be  gross 
exaggerations.  On  the  other  hand,  some  adverse 
critics,  finding  his  sensuality  and  cruelty  and 
criminality  proved  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt, 
and  unable  to  reconcile  these  villanies  with  any 
real  consciousness  of  the  existence  of  a  Divine 
being,  have  come  to  the  conslusion  that  Alex- 
ander VI  must  have  been  secretly  an  atheist.  It 
is  undoubtedly  a  somewhat  startling  contrast  to 
find  Alexander  turning  from  the  contriving  of  a 
murder  to  the  celebration  of  a  Mass  ;  to  see  him 
at  one  moment  absorbed  in  adoration  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  and  at  another  instructing  a  painter  to 
adorn  his  walls  by  depicting  the  Queen  of  Heaven 
with  the  features  of  his  adulterous  concubine  Giulia 
Farnese.  But  his  is  by  no  means  the  only  case  in 

217 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

which  fervent  piety  and  ardent  immorality  have 
been  alternating  states  of  the  same  mind.  The 
real  crux  of  the  matter  is  that  this  man  was  Pope. 
To  separate  the  office  from  the  man  is  an  impossi- 
bility ;  and  the  occupation  of  the  Papal  chair  by 
a  Rodrigo  Borgia  reduces  the  Vicarship  of  Christ 
and  Vice-Regency  of  God  upon  earth  to  a  palpable 
absurdity. 

The  sudden  illness  and  unexpected  death  of 
Alexander  VI  threw  the  whole  country  into  com- 
motion. Louis  XII  of  France  and  Ferdinand  of 
Spain  were  determined  to  strain  every  nerve  to 
secure  the  election  of  their  respective  candidates 
for  the  Papal  chair.  The  French  army,  under 
Francesco  Gonzaga,  had  halted  close  by  at  Viterbo  ; 
the  Spanish  army,  under  Gonsalvo  de  Cordova, 
was  advancing  from  the  south ;  the  streets  of 
Rome  rang  with  cries  of  "  Orsini !  "  "  Colonna  !  1: 
"  Borgia  1  "  and  it  seemed  as  though  the  contest 
for  the  Papacy  could  never  be  settled  without  an 
appeal  to  arms.  Although  whilst  his  father  was 
dying  Cesare  himself  was  still  so  ill  that  his  own 
life  was  not  out  of  danger,  he  had  ordered  his 
troops  from  Pesaro  to  Rome  ;  and  before  the  death 
of  Alexander  could  be  announced  had  possessed 
himself  of  all  the  treasure  he  could  lay  hands  upon. 
His  trusty  henchman,  Don  Michelotto,  entering  the 
Papal  apartments,  held  a  dagger  to  the  throat  of 
Cardinal  Cassanova  and  threatened  to  kill  him  on 
the  spot  unless  he  instantly  gave  up  the  Pope's 
keys  and  money.  By  this  means  the  Duke  obtained 
10,000  golden  ducats  in  cash  besides  plate  and 
218 


THE  DOWNFALL 

jewels  to  the  value  of  300,000  ducats  more.  He 
was  in  command  of  an  army  of  over  8000  men,  his 
cavalry  encamped  on  Monte  Mario,  his  infantry 
holding  S.  Onofrio  and  all  the  streets  leading  to 
the  Borgo ;  eight  of  the  Spanish  cardinals  were 
reported  to  be  as  subservient  to  him  as  though 
they  were  his  own  domestic  chaplains ;  and  it 
was  generally  believed  that  he  could  control  the 
election  and  secure  the  elevation  of  a  Pope  devoted 
to  his  interests. 

Machiavelli  enumerates  four  principal  lines  of 
policy  by  which  Cesare  had  carefully  provided 
against  the  dangers  that  might  befall  him  on  his 
father's  death.  The  first  was  to  destroy  the  whole 
line  of  those  families  he  dispossessed,  in  order  that, 
in  the  event  of  the  next  Pope  being  unfavourable 
to  him,  there  might  be  no  legitimate  heirs  to  claim 
restitution.  The  second  was  to  cajole  the  nobility 
of  Rome  and  take  many  of  their  adherents  into 
his  pay,  so  that  his  party  in  the  city  could  put 
considerable  restraint  upon  a  new  and  adverse 
Pope.  The  third  was  to  pack  the  Sacred  College 
with  friends  and  creatures  of  his  own.  And  the 
fourth  was  to  make  himself  so  strong  before  the 
death  of  his  father  as  to  be  able  single-handed  to 
give  a  good  account  of  all  his  enemies.  The  first 
three  he  had  carried  out  with  some  degree  of 
completeness  ;  and  he  was  in  a  fair  way  towards 
the  accomplishment  of  the  fourth  when  his  father 
died.  He  told  me  himself  afterwards,  says  Machia- 
velli, that  he  had  considered  all  the  accidents  that 
might  befall  him  on  the  death  of  his  father,  and 

219 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

had  provided  against  them  all,  save  only  this  one. 
It  had  never  entered  his  thoughts  that  he  might 
be  laid  up  with  a  disabling  disease  at  this  critical 
conjuncture.  Such  was  the  Duke's  prudence  and 
"  magnanimity,"  continues  this  cynical  political 
philosopher,  and  so  solid  were  the  foundations  he 
had  laid  during  the  last  few  years,  that  had  he  not 
been  confronted  by  the  two  great  armies  of  France 
and  Spain  whilst  suffering  from  a  fierce  distemper, 
he  would  doubtless  have  overcome  all  his  diffi- 
culties and  carried  his  pre-arranged  plans  into 
execution.  As  it  was,  however,  he  was  obliged 
to  do  not  what  he  would  but  what  he  could. 

Alexander's  death,  of  course,  was  the  signal  for 
an  uprising  of  all  the  enemies  of  the  House  of 
Borgia ;  and  the  haughty  Duke,  whose  frown  but 
a  few  days  previously  had  caused  everybody  to 
tremble,  was  reduced  to  seek  safety  by  humiliating 
alliances.  He  had  endeavoured  to  obtain  posses- 
sion of  the  now  impregnable  Castle  of  St.  Angelo, 
but  the  Bishop  of  Nicastro,  who  was  governor, 
had  refused  admittance  to  Cesare's  troops  under 
Don  Michelotto ;  and  having  failed  in  securing 
himself  by  this  means,  the  Duke,  on  August  22, 
submissively  swore  obedience  to  the  Sacred  College, 
and  was  permitted  to  retain  his  office  of  Gonfa- 
loniere  during  the  interregnum.  But  he  guarded 
all  the  approaches  to  Rome,  both  by  sea  and  land, 
in  order  to  prevent  the  Cardinals  of  Vincola  and 
San  Giorgio  from  attending  the  conclave.  Fabio 
Orsini,  who  thirsted  after  Cesare's  blood,  entered 
the  city  with  a  following  of  400  horse  and  500  foot, 
220 


THE  DOWNFALL 

burnt  houses  and  shops  in  the  Spanish  quarter, 
came  into  conflict  with  some  of  the  Duke's  soldiery 
and  washed  his  hands  and  face  in  the  blood  of  a 
slaughtered  Borgian.  The  Colonna  also  took  up 
arms  ;  and  Cesare,  fearing  a  confederacy  of  these 
two  powerful  families  against  him,  judged  it 
prudent  to  conclude  an  alliance  with  the  latter. 
Several  of  the  Orsini  had  been  deprived  by  him 
both  of  property  and  life  ;  but  the  Colonna  he  had 
injured  in  their  estates  only,  which  he  could,  and 
now  did,  restore.  It  was  still  thought  that  his 
influence  would  be  decisive  in  the  election  of  the 
next  Pope ;  and  both  France  and  Spain  courted 
him  assiduously  and  made  large  offers  for  his 
support  of  their  respective  candidates.  But  the 
cardinals  would  not  enter  the  conclave  whilst  the 
streets  were  filled  with  tumultuous  soldiery  and 
whilst  there  was  any  fear  of  interference  by  the 
French  army  at  Viterbo,  which  had  refused  to 
pass  the  Tiber  until  a  new  Pope  had  been  elected. 
Negotiations  were  carried  on  with  Cesare  as  with 
an  independent  prince.  He  was  still  Duke  of 
Romagna,  in  command  of  a  considerable  army, 
and  possessed  plenty  of  money.  When  the  ambas- 
sadors of  France,  Spain,  Venice,  and  the  Emperor 
called  on  him  on  August  25  to  request  his  removal 
from  the  Vatican  in  order  to  secure  freedom  of 
election,  they  found  him  lying  on  his  couch,  but 
fully  dressed,  and  surrounded  by  the  Spanish 
cardinals.  He  declined  to  leave,  on  the  ground 
that  being  ill  he  was  not  safe  elsewhere  ;  but  he 
expressed  his  willingness  to  go  into  the  Castle  of 

221 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

St.  Angelo  on  condition  that  it  were  garrisoned  by 
his  own  troops.  This,  of  course,  was  out  of  the 
question,  for  established  there  he  would  have  over- 
awed the  Vatican  and  all  Rome.  After  the  negotia- 
tions had  lasted  about  a  week,  it  was  at  length 
agreed  that  Cesare  should  withdraw  with  his  troops 
from  Rome  on  consideration  that  the  College  of 
Cardinals  granted  him  a  free  passage  through  the 
States  of  the  Church,  engaged  to  protect  him  against 
all  attacks,  and  promised  to  warn  off  the  Venetians 
from  any  attempts  against  the  Romagna.  It  was 
agreed  at  the  same  time  that  the  Orsini  and  Colonna 
should  withdraw  also ;  and  the  ambassadors  of 
France,  Spain,  Venice,  and  the  Emperor  pledged 
their  respective  governments  to  prevent  any  of 
these  troops,  or  the  French  or  Spanish  army,  from 
approaching  within  ten  miles  of  Rome  so  long  as 
the  Papal  throne  remained  vacant. 

Cesare  left  Rome  on  September  2,  preserving  as 
much  of  his  accustomed  state  and  dignity  as  the 
suddenness  and  rapidity  of  his  retreat  admitted. 
Preceded  by  his  advance-guard,  thirteen  carts  carry- 
ing his  artillery  and  ammunition,  and  more  than 
a  hundred  baggage  waggons  with  his  other  effects, 
passed  through  the  Transtevere.  The  Duke  fol- 
lowed, escorted  by  his  cavalry,  and  carried  by 
twelve  halberdiers  on  a  high  litter  with  a  crimson 
canopy.  Behind  him,  led  by  a  young  page,  came 
his  charger,  caparisoned  in  black  velvet  on  which 
his  arms  and  ducal  crown  were  embroidered  in 
gold.  The  French,  Spanish  and  Imperial  ambas- 
sadors accompanied  him  as  far  as  the  city  walls. 
222 


THE  DOWNFALL 

At  the  Porta  Viridaria,  Cardinal  Cesarini  desired 
to  make  some  communication,  but  received  the 
haughty  reply  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  Duke 
to  grant  him  an  audience.  Amongst  his  train 
were  his  mother,  Vanozza,  who  had  been  the  object 
of  hostile  demonstrations,  and  also  his  brother, 
Giuffre,  Prince  of  Squillace.  Donna  Sancia,  who 
had  been  shut  up  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  by 
the  Pope  some  time  before  his  death  on  account 
of  her  licentiousness  and  the  dissensions  she  had 
created  in  the  family,  was  released  from  her 
confinement  and  placed  in  charge  of  Prospero 
Colonna  to  be  conducted  to  Naples. 

The  Duke  proceeded  to  Nepi,  when  it  soon 
became  known  that  he  had  thrown  in  his  lot  with 
France  against  Spain,  and  that  Louis  XII  had 
engaged  in  return  to  protect  him  in  his  present 
possessions  and  to  assist  him  to  recover  those 
which  he  had  lost.  For  the  extensive  dominion 
which  he  had  built  up  at  the  cost  of  so  much 
bloodshed  and  treachery  had  already  begun  to 
crumble  away.  The  Orsini  and  other  surviving 
Roman  barons  had  repossessed  themselves  of  their 
old  estates  ;  Guidobaldo  had  been  received  back 
with  open  arms  at  Urbino  ;  Giovanni  Sforza  had 
re-entered  Pesaro  amidst  the  acclamations  of  his 
old  subjects ;  the  Vitelli  returned  to  Citta  di 
Castello,  Appiano  to  Piombino,  Varani  to  Camerino, 
Delia  Rovere  to  Sinigaglia ;  and,  after  one  repulse, 
Gianpaolo  Baglioni  had  succeeded  in  recapturing 
Perugia.  The  Romagna  alone  remained.  Cesare 
Borgia  has  been  generally  commended  for  his  good 

223 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

government  of  this  province,  which,  it  is  said,  won 
for  him  the  affection  of  the  inhabitants.  There 
was  little  affection  in  the  case,  but  Cesare  had 
certainly  to  some  extent  served  their  interests. 
After  allowing  his  ferocious  agent,  Don  Ramiro, 
to  stamp  out  all  opposition,  and  then  killing  him 
by  way  of  disavowing  his  methods,  Cesare  had 
shown  the  Romagnoles  that  it  was  more  to  their 
interest  to  have  one  than  many  masters.  By 
suppressing  the  brigandage  to  which  they  had  all 
been  exposed,  by  employing  many  of  them  with 
good  pay  under  his  banners,  and  by  appointing 
some  of  them  to  comfortable  benefices  and  other 
posts  of  profit,  which  his  command  of  all  the 
wealth  and  influence  of  the  Papacy  easily  enabled 
him  to  do,  he  had  taught  them  that  it  was  better 
to  be  subject  all  together  to  one  potent  and  wealthy 
lord  rather  than  for  each  city  to  be  under  the 
dominion  of  its  own  petty  prince,  who  was  always 
at  feud  with  his  neighbours,  and  who  could  neither 
defend  them  against  their  enemies  for  want  of 
power  nor  help  them  otherwise  for  want  of  money. 
As  soon  as  Cesare  Borgia  had  departed,  Cardinal 
Giuliano  Rovere,  who  had  been  an  exile  for  ten 
years,  entered  Rome,  and  at  once  boldly  announced 
that  he  had  not  come  in  the  French  interest  but 
in  his  own.  He  was  soon  followed  by  Cardinal 
Ascanio  Sforza,  who  had  been  released  from  his 
Bourges  prison  in  the  hope  that  he  would  use  his 
influence  in  favour  of  the  French  cardinal 
d'Amboise.  But  Sforza  no  sooner  reached  Rome, 
where  his  reception  was  an  enthusiastic  one,  than 
224 


THE  DOWNFALL 

he  set  about  working  hard  for  his  own  election. 
When  at  Milan  in  the  previous  August,  in  order 
to  obtain  the  aid  of  Louis  XII  in  extricating  him 
from  his  difficulties,  Cesare  had  promised  to  sup- 
port the  candidature  of  Cardinal  d'Amboise  at 
the  next  Papal  election ;  and  the  French  now 
counted  upon  him  to  influence  in  their  favour  the 
votes  of  the  Spanish  cardinals.  But  although  these 
cardinals  dared  not  vote  for  one  of  their  own 
nationality  in  face  of  the  outbreak  of  popular  rage 
against  everything  Spanish  which  had  instantly 
followed  the  death  of  Alexander  VI,  they  were 
not  disposed  to  incur  the  anger  of  their  king  by 
voting  for  a  French  Pope  whilst  that  country  was 
at  war  with  Spain.  D'Amboise  had  come  to  Rome 
confident  of  his  own  election  ;  but  when  he  found 
that  to  be  hopeless  he  set  himself  to  prevent  at 
any  rate  that  of  his  principal  rival,  Giuliano  della 
Rovere.  As  no  party  was  in  a  position  to  carry 
the  election,  and  as  the  disorderly  state  of  affairs 
permitted  of  no  further  delay,  a  compromise  was 
soon  agreed  upon.  On  September  22  a  man  of 
unblemished  character,  but  aged  and  infirm,  and 
therefore  not  likely  to  rule  long,  was  elected  in 
the  person  of  Francesco  Piccolomini,  Cardinal  of 
Siena,  who  assumed  the  name  of  Pius  III  in  memory 
of  the  uncle  who  had  raised  him  to  the  purple. 

Pius  III  had  no  great  partiality  for  Cesare 
Borgia ;  but  when  the  Duke  entreated  to  be 
allowed  to  return  to  Rome,  and  the  Spanish 
cardinals,  who  interceded  for  him,  assured  the 
Pope  he  was  very  ill  and  only  wanted  to  come  to 

P  225 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Rome  to  die,  he  gave  his  permission  ;  and  on 
October  3  Cesare  returned,  accompanied  by  his 
mother  and  his  brother  Guiffre,  and  bringing  with 
him  250  horse  and  500  infantry.  The  fact  really 
was  that  the  departure  of  the  French  army  for 
Naples  had  left  Cesare  unprotected,  and  he  feared 
a  combined  attack  of  the  Orsini,  Savelli,  and  other 
enemies  at  Nepi.  He  also  wanted  an  opportunity 
to  win  the  Pope  over  to  his  side.  Pius  was  not 
unfriendly ;  and  when  the  Baglioni  and  Orsini 
attacked  some  places  in  Umbria,  he  issued  a  Brief 
to  Perugia  forbidding  any  one  to  act  against  his 
"  beloved  son  Cesare  Borgia  of  France,  Duke  of 
Romagna  and  Valentinois,  and  Gonfaloniere  of  the 
Church."  He  also  sent  similar  Briefs  to  the 
Romagna,  where  the  Venetians  had  taken  pos- 
session of  several  cities.  But  in  the  course  of  a 
few  days  Bartolomeo  d'Alviano,  Gianpaolo  Baglioni, 
and  the  Orsini  who  were  in  the  city,  backed  by  the 
Cardinals  della  Rovere  and  Riario,  demanded  the 
disbandment  of  Cesare's  army.  All  the  Orsini, 
with  the  exception  of  Giovanni  Giordano,  entered 
into  the  service  of  the  King  of  Spain  because 
Cesare  Borgia  was  on  the  side  of  France  ;  and  on 
October  12  it  was  announced  that  they  had  also 
made  an  alliance  with  their  hereditary  enemies 
the  Colonna. 

This  union  of  enemies,  which  had  been  brought 
about  by  Bartolomeo  d'Alviano  and  the  Venetian 
ambassador,  terrified  Cesare,  who  immediately 
endeavoured  to  remove  from  Rome  to  the  fortress 
of  Bracciano,  whither  Giovanni  Giordano,  who 
226 


THE  DOWNFALL 

alone  of  his  family  had  entered  the  service  of 
France,  engaged  to  conduct  him  in  safety.  This 
so  angered  the  rest  of  the  family  that  they  talked 
of  throwing  Giovanni  Giordano  into  prison,  and 
his  own  wife  urged  them  to  do  so.  But  Bartolomeo 
d'Alviano  had  set  a  guard  at  every  gate,  whilst 
Baglioni  and  the  other  Orsini  attacked  the  Duke's 
men  with  such  fury  that  he  was  constrained  to 
return  and  take  refuge  in  the  Vatican.  His  troops, 
which  were  already  greatly  reduced  in  number  in 
consequence  of  Gonsalvo  de  Cordova  having  re- 
called every  Spaniard  to  the  aid  of  his  country  on 
pain  of  death,  all  deserted  or  were  dispersed  ;  and 
when  the  Orsini  demanded  his  arrest  from  the 
Pope  and  found  Pius  III  lying  on  his  death-bed 
too  ill  to  attend  to  their  request,  they  endeavoured 
to  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands.  The  Duke 
was  at  the  end  of  his  resources,  and  took  refuge, 
with  a  few  servants,  in  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo. 

But  on  October  18,  after  a  Pontificate  of  only 
twenty-six  days,  Pius  III  died,  and  the  situation 
of  affairs  was  again  suddenly  changed.  Sixteen 
days  later,  on  November  1,  after  the  shortest 
sitting  of  any  conclave  in  the  whole  history  of 
the  Papacy,  it  was  announced  that  Cardinal 
Giuliano  della  Rovere  had  been  elected  Pope,  and 
that  it  pleased  him  to  take  the  title  of  Julius  II. 
All  the  world  seems  to  have  been  greatly  surprised 
at  the  quickness  and  unanimity  of  Julius5  election  ; 
for  although  he  was  a  cardinal  of  long  standing, 
of  great  power  and  interest  and  magnificence,  a 
staunch  defender  of  the  dignity  and  privileges  of 

22T 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

the  Church,  and  acknowledged  even  by  his  bitterest 
enemy,  Alexander  VI,  to  be  a  man  of  veracity,  he 
was  also  universally  known  to  be  of  a  restless  and 
intriguing  disposition,  with  a  turbulent  and  terrible 
temper,  which  had  frequently  caused  offence  and 
created  him  many  enemies.  But  the  truth  is  these 
considerations  had  been  of  little  weight  on  the  one 
side  or  the  other,  for  the  result  had  been  arranged 
beforehand  by  intrigues  and  promises  and  bribes 
of  every  description.  It  is  not  necessary  to  enter 
into  any  detail  of  the  bribes  given  to  the  different 
electors  further  than  to  say  that  the  votes  of  the 
solid  body  of  Spanish  cardinals,  who,  as  the 
Ferrarese  ambassador  slyly  remarked,  did  not  intend 
to  be  poor  when  they  came  out  of  the  conclave, 
were  obtained  through  the  influence  of  Cesare 
Borgia ;  and  that  when  Cardinal  Giuliano  bar- 
gained with  the  Duke  and  these  cardinals  for  their 
votes,  on  October  29,  in  the  Vatican,  he  promised 
in  return  to  confirm  Cesare's  appointment  as 
Gonfaloniere  of  the  Church,  to  give  his  nephew, 
Francesco  Maria  Rovere,  together  with  his  claims 
on  Sinigaglia,  in  marriage  to  Cesare's  daughter, 
and,  most  important  of  all,  to  assist  him  in  the 
recovery  of  the  Romagna,  the  whole  of  which  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  fortresses  had  now  revolted 
from  him. 

When  the  cities  of  the  Romagna  learned  that 
the  Duke's  troops  were  disbanded,  and  that  he 
had  been  forced  to  take  refuge  in  the  Castle  of 
St.  Angelo,  many  of  them  returned  to  their  old 
allegiance.  Giovanni  Sforza  had  already  been  wel- 
228 


THE  DOWNFALL 

corned    back    to    Pesaro ;     the    people    of    Rimini 
recalled  Pandolfo  Malatesta  ;    Forli  recalled  one  of 
the  Ordelaffi,  which  had  been  the  reigning  family 
there  before  the  Riario  ;    Imola  hesitated  between 
doing    the    same    or    declaring    for    the    Church ; 
Faenza,    in    default    of    a    legitimate    heir    of   the 
Manfredi,  installed  a  bastard  Astorre.     But  what 
disturbed  the  new  Pope  much  more  was  that  the 
Venetians    took    advantage    of    the    confusion    to 
extend  their  dominions  on  that  side  the  Adriatic. 
They  attacked  Ravenna,  occupied  Rimini  by  arrange- 
ment with  Pandolfo  Malatesta,  took  various  other 
castles  in  the  territory,  and  besieged  Faenza.     This 
place  sturdily  defended  itself,  and  appealed  for  aid 
to  Julius  II.     The  Pope  sent  the  Bishop  of  Tivoli 
to  Venice  to  protest,   but  without  effect.     Being 
without  men  or  money,  Julius  could  do  no  more, 
and  it  therefore  seemed  advisable  to  allow  Cesare 
to  reconquer  the  Romagna  and  leave  him  there  for 
a  time   as   vicar,   although    from  the   first  Julius 
made    no    secret    of    his    determination    that    all 
wrongly  alienated  States  must  be  restored  to  the 
Church.     Immediately    on    his    elevation    he    had 
given  the  Duke   apartments  in  the   Vatican  and 
treated  him  with  great  consideration.     Strangely 
enough,  that  master  of  dissimulation  seems  to  have 
believed   in  the   sincerity   of   all  the   Pope's   pro- 
fessions.    He  even  declared  that  he  had  "  found 
a  new  father." 

Cesare,  however,  seemed  to  be  stunned  and 
stupefied  by  his  change  of  fortune.  Machiavelli, 
who  was  then  on  an  embassy  to  Rome,  found  him 

229 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

a  very  different  man  from  the  inscrutable  com- 
mander whose  secrecy  of  plan  and  swiftness  of 
action  had  seemed  so  impressive  a  year  previously 
at  Imola.  Cardinal  Soderini  found  him  suspicious 
and  irresolute.  The  Cardinal  of  Elna  thought  him 
so  confused  as  to  be  completely  out  of  his  mind. 
And  the  Pope  told  the  Venetian  Ambassador  that 
the  Duke  was  so  changeable  and  incomprehensible 
that  he  did  not  know  what  to  make  of  him.  At 
the  same  time  nobody  knew  what  were  Julius' 
intentions  towards  Cesare  ;  although  on  Novem- 
ber 17  Giustiniani  wrote  home  his  suspicions  that 
the  Pope  was  secretly  planning  the  Duke's  destruc- 
tion. Machiavelli  seems  to  have  been  much  of  the 
same  opinion,  for  when  informing  the  Ten  that  the 
Duke  proposed  to  pass  through  Tuscany,  provided 
he  could  obtain  their  safe  conduct,  with  300  light 
horse  and  400  infantry,  the  envoy  adds  that  the 
Pope,  who  is  pressing  him  to  go,  has  also  written 
to  request  this  safe  conduct,  but  does  not  care  that 
the  Duke  should  get  it.  The  request  so  lukewarmly 
backed  up  was  refused  ;  whereupon  Cesare  hotly 
told  Machiavelli  that  he  had  already  sent  on  some 
of  his  troops  and  could  not  wait.  He  also  burst 
out  into  furious  reproaches,  and  threatened  to  side 
with  Pisa,  Venice,  or  the  very  Devil  himself, 
in  order  to  be  revenged  on  the  Florentines.  To 
pacify  him,  Machiavelli  promised  to  write  again  to 
Florence ;  and  suggested  that  the  Duke  should 
send  one  of  his  officers  there  to  negotiate  further. 
What  Machiavelli  did  write  was  that  the  Florentines 
might  safely  do  what  they  pleased  with  the  Duke's 
230 


THE  DOWNFALL 

messenger,  and  also  have  his  troops  arrested  and 
disarmed  at  the  first  convenient  opportunity. 

On  November  19  Cesare  started  down  the  Tiber 
in  a  boat  for  Ostia,  whence  he  was  to  sail  to  Spezia, 
and  thence  go  by  land  to  Imola.  Soon  after  he 
had  left,  news  arrived  that  Faenza  had  surrendered 
to  the  Venetians.  This  caused  the  anxious  Julius 
a  sleepless  night.  He  may  have  feared,  as  Creighton 
supposes,  that  the  appearance  of  Cesare  in  the 
Romagna  once  more  might  create  such  a  dread  of 
his  vengeance  that  the  other  cities  would  throw 
themselves  into  the  hands  of  Venice.  He  may  have 
feared  that  Cesare,  once  more  established  in  the 
Romagna,  might  defy  the  Papacy.  However  this 
may  be,  next  morning  he  sent  the  Cardinals  of 
Volterra  and  Sorrento  after  Cesare  to  command 
him  to  give  the  passwords  and  surrender  into  the 
hands  of  the  Church  the  citadels  of  Cesena,  Forli 
and  Bertinoro,  on  the  understanding  that  they 
should  be  returned  to  him  when  the  danger  from 
Venice  was  past.  Cesare  had  previously  offered  to 
surrender  these  fortresses  on  condition  that  as 
soon  as  the  Venetians  were  driven  out  of  the 
Romagna  he  should  be  confirmed  as  Duke  ;  but 
Julius,  not  wishing  to  commit  himself  to  this,  had 
declined  the  offer.  Cesare,  who  now  thought  he 
was  on  his  way  to  get  back  his  duchy  with  or  with- 
out the  Papal  help,  now  refused  to  surrender  his 
forces.  But  he  had  not  got  far  enough  away  to 
be  out  of  the  Pope's  clutches.  He  was  arrested  by 
Julius'  orders  on  board  of  one  of  the  galleys  at 
Ostia ;  and  the  Pope  also  immediately  sent  orders 

231 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

to  Siena  and  Perugia  to  pursue  and  disarm  the 
troops  which  had  gone  forward  under  Don  Michel- 
otto. 

Cesare  was  brought  back  to  Rome  under  a 
strong  Papal  guard  on  November  29.  It  is  said 
that  both  Guidobaldo  of  Urbino  and  Giovanni 
Giordano  Orsini  urged  the  Pope  to  put  an  end  to 
his  life ;  but  this  was  not  Julius'  policy.  He 
kept  the  Duke  in  safe  custody,  but  assigned  him 
apartments  in  the  Vatican  and  treated  him  with 
much  consideration,  hoping  to  induce  him  by 
peaceable  means  to  surrender  the  fortresses.  Four 
days  later  his  persuasions  seemed  to  have  had  their 
effect ;  for,  on  condition  of  receiving  a  written 
guarantee  of  his  Romagna  territories,  counter- 
signed by  the  Cardinal  of  Rouen,  the  Duke  sent  off 
Pietro  d'Orvieto  with  the  passwords,  accompanied 
by  Papal  messengers  to  take  possession  of  the 
strongholds.  On  their  arrival  at  Cesena,  however, 
the  governor  of  the  citadel  refused  to  take  any 
such  instructions  whilst  his  master  was  a  prisoner, 
and  hanged  d'Orvieto  from  his  battlements.  Julius, 
suspecting  trickery  and  highly  incensed,  confined 
Cesare  in  the  Torre  Borgia  and  confiscated  all  his 
property.  Before  the  end  of  the  month,  however, 
a  momentous  event  occurred  which,  whilst  it 
shattered  all  Cesare's  hopes  of  aid  from  France,  at 
the  same  time  greatly  increased  the  influence  of  his 
friends  the  Spanish  cardinals.  On  December  28 
the  great  captain  Gonsalvo  de  Cordova  completely 
defeated  the  French  on  the  Garigliano  ;  and  with 
the  capitualtion  of  Gaeta,  which  followed  on 
232 


THE  DOWNFALL 

January  1,  1504,  the  French  finally  lost  all  footing 
in  Naples. 

The  Pope  found  himself  unable  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  the  citadels  of  Cesena,  Forli  and  Bertinoro 
without  Cesare's  consent,  which  the  latter  would 
not  give  without  securing  his  freedom.  At  length, 
on  January  29,  1504,  it  was  agreed  that  the  Duke 
should  go  to  Ostia  under  the  charge  of  the  Spanish 
Cardinal,  Carvajal,  on  the  condition  that  if  he 
delivered  up  these  three  castles  to  the  Pope  within 
forty  days  he  was  to  be  set  at  liberty.  On 
February  16  Cesare  was  conducted  to  the  fortress 
of  Ostia  and  thence  opened  up  communication 
with  his  castellans.  The  captains  of  Cesena  and 
Bertinoro  at  first  insisted  upon  the  Duke's  libera- 
tion before  they  would  listen  to  any  proposals. 
When  this  had  been  accommodated,  the  governor 
of  Forli  demanded  15,000  ducats  for  the  payment 
of  his  troops,  which  the  Pope  would  not  consent  to 
give  until  he  had  made  Cesare  give  security  for  the 
money.  At  length,  however,  everything  was  con- 
cluded to  the  satisfaction  of  Cardinal  Carvajal, 
who,  suspecting  that  the  Pope  would  raise  further 
difficulties  for  the  purpose  of  retaining  the  Duke 
in  his  power,  allowed  the  prisoner  to  depart  on 
April  14.  Cesare,  who  also  had  suspected  the  same 
thing,  had  applied  to  Gonsalvo  de  Cordova  for  a 
safe  conduct  and  two  galleys  to  conduct  him  to 
Naples. 

Having  been  received  in  Naples  by  Gonsalvo  de 
Cordova  with  every  demonstration  of  friendship 
and  honour,  Cesare  Borgia  soon  showed  that  he  had 

233 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

by  no  means  lost  all  hope  of  recovering  his 
dominions.  At  first  he  proposed  to  go  to  the 
help  of  Pisa  against  Florence  ;  then  a  rising  in 
Piombino  seemed  to  offer  a  better  opening  for  his 
designs,  this  being  the  place  which  he  had  wrested 
from  Jacopo  Appiano  and  strongly  fortified  to 
form  a  basis  for  his  operations  against  Tuscany. 
Gonsalvo  seemed  to  approve  of  his  projects,  gave 
him  leave  to  raise  in  Naples  whatever  troops  he 
required  to  take  with  him,  and  even  offered  to 
provide  him  with  galleys  for  his  convoy.  But  all 
the  time  he  was  only  waiting  instructions  from 
King  Ferdinand,  and  practising  on  the  Duke  the 
same  dissimulation  with  which  Cesare  had  been 
so  expert  in  deluding  others.  On  May  27,  having 
made  all  his  preparations  and  being  ready  to  set 
sail  for  Piombino,  the  Duke  had  a  long  conference 
with  the  Spanish  general,  who  entertained  him 
with  demonstrations  of  friendship  and  embraced 
him  at  parting.  But  he  had  no  sooner  left 
Gonsalvo's  chamber  than  he  was  arrested  and 
carried  off  to  the  castle  of  Ischia.  This  was  done 
by  Ferdinand's  orders  at  the  instigation  of  the 
Pope ;  and  Gonsalvo  was  evidently  ashamed  of 
his  own  part  in  the  matter,  for  he  immediately 
sought  to  find  and  destroy  the  safe  conduct  which 
he  had  sent  to  the  Duke  at  Ostia.  Julius  II,  who 
had  written  to  Gonsalvo  requesting  him  to  keep 
an  eye  on  Cesare  and  prevent  him  doing  anything 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  Church,  had  also  written 
to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  at  the  same  time  charging 
Gonsalvo  with  permitting  Cesare  to  conspire  against 
234 


THE  DOWNFALL 

the  Papacy ;  complaining  that  Cardinal  Carvajal 
had  set  the  Duke  free,  contrary  to  instructions, 
before  he  had  carried  out  his  promises  ;  and  alleging 
that  the  latter  had  sent  money  to  the  governor  of 
Forli  and  encouraged  him  to  retain  possession  of 
the  castle  ;  wherefore  he  begs  their  majesties  to 
put  a  stop  to  these  proceedings  which  disturb  the 
peace  of  Italy  and  the  Holy  See.  Forli  was 
recovered  by  a  stratagem.  Gonsalvo  promised  to 
release  Cesare  from  his  prison  provided  he  sur- 
rendered Forli  to  the  Pope.  The  Duke  wrote  to 
his  captain  accordingly,  and  the  castle  was  given 
up  on  August  10.  Ten  days  afterwards  Cesare 
was  released  from  his  prison,  but  it  was  only  to  be 
put  on  board  a  galley  and  shipped  to  Spain  ;  where 
he  was  confined,  with  but  a  single  servant  to  wait 
upon  him,  in  the  castle  of  Medina  del  Campo,  near 
Valladolid  in  Castile. 

Cesare's  wife,  the  Duchess  of  Valentinois,  his 
brother-in-law  the  King  of  Navarre,  his  sister 
Lucrezia,  and  the  Spanish  members  of  the  Sacred 
College  all  petitioned  for  his  release.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  said,  his  sister-in-law,  widow  of  the 
Duke  of  Gandia,  petitioned  for  his  execution  as  the 
murderer  of  her  husband  and  of  the  Duke  of 
Bisceglia.  Neither  party  obtained  any  satisfac- 
tion, however,  and  for  two  years  Cesare  remained 
in  strict  confinement  in  Medina  del  Campo.  But 
on  October  25,  1506,  he  effected  his  escape.  By 
means  of  a  rope,  said  to  have  been  brought  him 
by  the  chaplain  of  the  place,  he  let  himself  down 
from  the  window  of  the  highest  room  in  the  tower, 

235 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

and  mounting  a  horse  that  had  been  placed  in 
readiness  by  the  Count  of  Benevento,  managed  to 
elude  his  pursuers  and  reach  the  territories  of  his 
brother-in-law,  the  King  of  Navarre.  The  rope 
supplied  him  being  too  short,  he  had  badly  injured 
himself  in  his  descent  from  the  tower  ;  and  his 
servant,  who  had  preceded  him,  having  broken 
both  legs,  was  perforce  abandoned,  and  left  to  be 
killed  on  his  discovery  by  the  guards  of  the  fortress. 
From  the  court  of  Navarre  in  Pamplona,  Cesare 
Borgia  petitioned  Louis  XII  for  reinstatement  in 
his  duchy  of  Valentinois  and  for  permission  to 
enter  the  French  service.  But  Louis,  being  now 
at  peace  with  Spain  and  at  war  with  Navarre,  was 
deaf  to  both  requests.  Cesare  also  sent  his  secre- 
tary, Federigo,  to  Ferrara  and  Mantua,  ostensibly 
to  bring  the  news  of  his  master's  escape,  but  really 
to  see  how  matters  stood  in  Italy,  and  ascertain 
whether  there  was  any  opening  for  a  return  to  the 
Romagna.  Curiously  enough,  Federigo  arrived  just 
in  time  to  report  to  his  master  that  Pope  Julius  had 
taken  possession  of  Bologna,  which  Cesare  had  so 
long  coveted  as  a  capital  for  his  province.  Julius 
was  greatly  disturbed  to  hear  of  the  Duke's  escape, 
for  he  knew  well  enough  that  Cesare  could  still 
command  a  considerable  following  in  the  Romagna, 
and  that  he  was  a  firebrand  who  would  not  scruple 
at  any  conflagration  for  the  furtherance  of  his 
ambitious  designs.  But  the  Pope's  disquietude  on 
this  score  was  not  of  long  duration.  Navarre  was 
at  issue  with  one  of  his  feudatories,  the  Count  of 
Lerin  ;  and  in  February  1507  Cesare  invested 
236 


THE  DOWNFALL 

Lerin's  City  of  Viana  on  behalf  of  his  brother-in- 
law.  On  March  12,  whilst  in  pursuit  of  a  foraging 
party  from  the  city,  Cesare  out-distanced  his  own 
men  and  was  lost  to  their  view  in  a  ravine.  Seeing 
themselves  pursued  by  but  a  single  horseman,  the 
foragers  turned  upon  him,  and  he  was  quickly 
overpowered  and  slain.  They  did  not  know  who 
he  was,  but,  tempted  by  the  richness  of  his  armour 
they  stripped  the  corpse  and  left  it  lying  naked  on 
the  ground,  where  it  was  soon  afterwards  found  by 
a  detachment  of  his  own  men  who  had  been  sent  in 
search  of  him. 

Several  authors  have  remarked  on  the  singularity 
of  the  coincidence  that  Cesare  Borgia  should  have 
died  in  the  diocese  of  Pamplona  and  been  buried 
in  the  cathedral  of  the  see  to  which  he  had  been 
appointed  bishop  in  his  early  boyhood  ;  Providence, 
as  one  of  them  moralises,  suffering  him  to  be 
placed  when  dead  where  he  would  not  remain  when 
alive.  But  this  is  not  strictly  correct ;  for  Cesare 
Borgia  was  buried  in  the  church  of  Viana,  where 
a  florid  Gothic  tomb  was  erected  to  his  memory. 
A  pompous  inscription  in  Spanish  read  to  the 
following  effect  : 

Here  lies  within  a  small  space 

One  who  was  dreaded, 

Who  everywhere  held  in  his  hands 

Both  Peace  and  War ; 

The  passer-by  who  seeketh 

Anything  more  laudable 

Or  more  admirable 

Will  need  to  travel  far. 

237 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

But  the  tomb  has  disappeared.  About  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century  a  bishop  of  Calahorra,  in 
whose  diocese  Viana  lay,  happened  to  be  a  descen- 
dant of  a  former  bishop  who  had  been  imprisoned 
by  Alexander  VI  for  heresy.  Taking  advantage 
of  some  restorations  in  the  church,  this  vindictive 
ecclesiastic  ordered  Cesare  Borgia's  sarcophagus  to 
be  destroyed  and  the  bones  which  it  contained  to 
be  thrown  away. 

Although  as  a  youth  Cesare  Borgia  exhibited 
something  of  the  charming  amiability  and  gaiety 
with  which  his  father  and  his  sister  were  so  richly 
endowed,  a  more  sombre  expression  seems  to  have 
become  habitual  with  him  from  the  time  of  his 
laying  down  the  cardinalate  and  beginning  the 
career  of  a  secular  prince  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three.  Unlike  Alexander  VI,  who  to  the  end  of 
his  days  maintained  an  almost  boyish  joviality  and 
frankness,  Cesare  became  silent  and  reserved,  held 
himself  haughtily  aloof  from  everybody,  including 
even  his  own  trusted  followers,  and  surrounded  all 
his  actions  with  mystery.  He  was  fond  of  going 
about  masked,  and  was  often  inaccessible  in  the 
daytime  because  he  had  been  occupied  during  the 
night — whether  by  business  or  by  pleasure  nobody 
knew.  He  was  inordinately  ambitious,  supremely 
egoistic,  insatiably  greedy  of  "  glory,"  treacherous 
to  his  allies,  vindictive  and  mercilessly  cruel  to  his 
enemies,  and  absolutely  unscrupulous  in  the  carry- 
ing out  of  his  designs.  Endowed  with  an  iron  will, 
a  cool,  cautious,  penetrating  intellect,  much  in- 
tuitive knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  the  cunning 
238 


THE  DOWNFALL 

of  a  fox  ;  astute  in  his  calculations,  masking  his 
intentions  with  consummate  hypocrisy,  and  swift 
in  action  as  soon  as  the  right  moment  had  arrived, 
he  remorselessly  swept  every  obstacle  from  his 
path. 

Some  modern  writers  have  ventured  to  describe 
him  as  a  paragon  of  Renascence  culture,  equally 
accomplished  in  the  arts  and  in  arms.  But  there 
is  little  warrant  for  such  a  characterisation.  He 
possessed  none  of  that  passionate  appreciation  of 
art  and  letters  which  was  displayed  by  Ludovico 
Sforza  and  the  Dukes  of  Urbino,  nor  is  it  possible 
to  credit  him  with  even  such  a  degree  of  literary 
and  artistic  culture  as  was  shown  by  the  Malatesta 
of  Rimini  and  by  many  other  of  the  bloodthirsty 
and  dissolute  tyrants  of  the  time.  His  stealing  of 
Duke  Guidobaldo's  books  and  tapestries  for  the 
decoration  of  his  own  castle  at  Cesena,  the  pleasure 
which  he  is  said  to  have  shown  in  conversing  with 
artists,  architects  and  scholars,  and  his  taking  a 
laureate  about  with  him  to  celebrate  his  campaigns 
in  Latin  verse  are  easily  to  be  accounted  for  by 
his  love  of  ostentation  and  his  desire  to  follow  the 
prevalent  fashion  of  his  country  and  his  time. 

He  was  remarkably  athletic,  and  fond  of  dis- 
playing his  strength  and  skill  at  bull- fights ; 
although  both  Burchard  and  Paolo  Capello  may 
be  suspected  of  some  exaggeration  when  they 
relate  that  during  the  Jubilee  festivities  of  1500 
the  Pope's  son  not  only  exhibited  great  skill  as  a 
matador  in  the  circus  erected  in  the  Piazza  of 
St.  Peter,  but  also  showed  his  herculean  strength 

239 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

by  striking  off  the  head  of  one  of  the  bulls  at  a 
single  blow.  Whatever  may  have  been  his  exploits 
as  an  athlete,  however,  nobody  surely  ever  obtained 
the  reputation  of  a  great  soldier  on  such  a  slender 
record.  The  imitation  of  an  ancient  Roman  triumph 
which  was  got  up  by  the  Pope  to  celebrate  his  son's 
return  after  the  capture  of  Imola  and  Forli  from 
a  woman  was  all  of  a  piece  with  the  rest  of  the 
Borgian  bombast  and  extravagance.  For  this  man 
who,  by  crime  and  cunning  and  treachery,  became 
for  a  short  time  ruler  over  a  large  part  of  Italy  and 
the  terror  of  all  his  contemporaries,  although  he 
successfully  besieged  a  number  of  more  or  less 
insignificant  cities  and  devastated  the  surrounding 
defenceless  country,  was  a  conqueror  who  never 
fought  a  single  battle. 

In  the  short  period  of  five  years  Cesare  Borgia 
had  risen  to  a  predominant  position  in  Italy,  and 
seemed  within  measurable  distance  of  the  kingly 
crown  of  his  ambition,  not  by  generalship  and 
bravery  in  the  field,  but  by  craftily  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  confusion  created  by  the  invasion  of  the 
French  to  seize  one  after  another  a  number  of  small 
contiguous  principalities  and  unite  them  under  one 
head.  At  the  time  of  his  father's  death,  as 
Machiavelli  points  out,  he  had  all  but  achieved  the 
accomplishment  of  his  designs.  He  was  not  only 
secure  in  the  Romagna,  but  had  also  possessed  him- 
self of  Perugia  and  Piombino ;  and,  being  the 
acknowledged  protector  of  Pisa,  was  in  a  position 
to  seize  Lucca  and  Siena  without  the  Florentines 
being  able  to  prevent  him.  Having  raised  himself 
240 


THE  DOWNFALL 

to  this  position  by  the  aid  of  France,  he  had  begun 
to  look  about  for  new  and  less  jealous  allies  in  order 
to  render  himself  independent  of  French  assistance ; 
and  had  his  father  lived  but  a  little  longer  there 
is  small  doubt  he  would  have  secured  them.  It 
was  not  so  much  his  fault  as  the  malignity  of 
Fortune,  says  the  admiring  Machiavelli,  that  when 
Alexander  VI  died,  Cesare  himself  was  at  the  point 
of  death,  and  likewise  so  hemmed  in  by  the  two 
powerful  armies  of  France  and  Spain  that  he  was 
condemned  to  inaction  at  the  critical  moment. 

But  his  sickness,  or  the  shock  of  his  sudden 
misfortune,  seems  to  have  paralysed  all  his  faculties. 
On  the  death  of  his  father,  although  unable  to 
make  a  Pope  of  his  own  choice,  his  position  was  a 
strong  one.  Yet  he  threw  away  every  chance  and 
failed  to  have  any  influence  on  the  election.  When 
the  French  army  departed  from  Nepi,  after  the 
election  of  Pius  III,  had  he  been  a  soldier  of  courage 
and  capacity,  instead  of  sneaking  back  to  Rome 
on  the  pretext  of  ill-health  to  continue  his  intrigues, 
he  might  have  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his  army, 
cut  his  way  through  the  gathering  forces  of  the 
Orsini  and  Savelli,  and  held  the  Romagna  in  defiance 
of  all  his  enemies.  And  on  the  death  of  Pius^  III  in 
the  following  month,  although  it  was  not  in  his 
power  to  secure  the  election  either  of  a  Spaniard 
or  of  the  French  cardinal  d'Amboise  to  the  Papacy, 
he  was  quite  strong  enough  to  prevent  the  election 
of  Cardinal  Giuliano  della  Rovere.  How  he  can 
have  been  cajoled  into  assisting  in  the  elevation  of 
a  cardinal  who  had  been  the  lifelong  enemy  of  his 

Q  241 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

family,  and  whom  he  had  so  grievously  offended,  is 
unintelligible.  It  was  his  one  error,  says  Machiavelli, 
and  it  was  the  cause  of  his  destruction. 

The  ambition  of  this  unscrupulous  young  upstart, 
backed  by  all  the  wealth  and  influence  of  the  Pope, 
had  raised  him  in  the  brief  space  of  five  years  to  a 
degree  of  unparalleled  splendour  and  power.  In 
the  beginning  of  August  1503  he  seemed  to  be  on 
the  point  of  founding  a  kingdom  of  central  Italy, 
which  would  demean  the  Papacy  to  little  more 
than  a  hereditary  appanage  of  his  family.  With 
his  death,  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  at  the  paltry 
siege  of  Viana,  the  menace  of  the  House  of  Borgia 
disappeared,  like  a  meteor  flashing  across  the 
summer  sky. 

Although  the  object  of  Alexander  VI  had  not 
been  to  benefit  the  Church  but  solely  to  aggrandise 
his  son,  the  final  result  of  all  his  scheming  was  the 
ruin  of  that  son  and  the  exaltation  of  the  Church. 
Before  his  time  the  Italian  princes,  and  even  the 
smaller  lords  and  barons,  had  thought  little  of  the 
temporal  power  of  the  Holy  See.  But  the  Borgia 
showed  Julius  II  what  a  Pope  with  courage  and 
ambition  and  money  was  able  to  do.  They  had 
exterminated  the  turbulent  baronage,  suppressed 
all  faction  in  the  patrimony,  consolidated  and 
annexed  the  Romagna.  He  took  up  the  work 
where  they  left  it,  and  carried  it  to  its  completion. 
He  conquered  Bologna,  mastered  the  Venetians, 
and  drove  the  French  out  of  Italy.  But  instead  of 
endowing  his  relations  with  the  acquisitions  he 
had  secured,  he  left  them  all  in  the  possession  of 
242 


THE  DOWNFALL 

the  Roman  Church,  of  which  he  did  not  forget  he 
was  only  the  temporary  head.  It  is  very  commonly 
asserted  that  Machiavelli  accounted  Cesare  Borgia 
the  very  incarnation  of  an  ideal  prince.  But  this 
is  not  strictly  correct.  What  Machiavelli  did  was 
to  instance  Cesare  as  the  type  of  "  tyrant "  best 
qualified  in  the  peculiar  condition  of  things  then 
existing  in  Italy  to  found  a  new  State.  Un- 
doubtedly he  occasionally  had  visions  that  tran- 
scended this  limited  and  immediately  practicable 
project.  An  Italian  monarchy,  with  Rome  as  its 
capital,  and  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope 
abolished,  has  arisen  in  our  own  times  ;  and  per- 
haps Machiavelli  may  be  regarded  as  its  prophet. 
But  it  is  nevertheless  true,  as  Gregorovius  has 
pointed  out,  that  the  policy  of  the  Borgia,  which 
Machiavelli  praised,  not  only  did  not  avert  but 
positively  encouraged  the  rule  of  the  foreigner, 
whilst  it  delayed  the  formation  of  a  united  Italy 
for  more  than  three  centuries. 


243 


IX 
LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

LUCREZIA  BORGIA  survived  the  downfall  of  the 
brother  whose  puppet  she  had  been  ;  and  we  may 
now  turn,  with  a  sense  of  relief,  to  the  record  of  her 
life  in  Ferrara.  When  she  took  up  her  residence 
in  Castle  Vecchio,  the  great  and  imposing  strong- 
hold which  Duke  Ercole  had  placed  at  the  young 
couple's  disposal,  she  looked  down  upon  a  city 
which  in  many  respects  presented  a  great  contrast 
to  the  Rome  which  she  had  now  left  behind  her 
for  ever.  Though  not  so  large  as  the  Eternal 
City,  its  population  was  more  numerous,  for  during 
Ercole's  reign  it  had  doubled,  and  now  numbered 
no  less  than  100,000  souls.  The  moral  atmosphere 
of  its  court  was  undoubtedly  more  salubrious  than 
that  of  the  head  of  the  Christian  Church ;  its 
government  was  more  orderly,  and  the  physical 
well-being  of  its  inhabitants  was  better  cared  for. 
Ferrara  was  the  home  of  a  numerous  and  wealthy 
nobility,  whose  magnificent  palaces,  as  well  as 
the  fine  churches,  convents,  and  other  public 
buildings  which  adorned  the  streets,  still  remain 
to  excite  the  admiration  of  visitors.  Its  university, 
which  maintained  forty-five  well-paid  professors, 
was  only  surpassed  by  those  of  Padua  and  Bologna. 
244 


LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

And  in  no  other  city  of  Italy  were  there  to  be 
found  more  distinguished  men  of  literature  and 
learning. 

Duke  Ercole  had  drained  the  extensive  marshes 
round  Ferrara,  greatly  to  the  improvement  of  the 
health  of  the  city,  had  built  dykes  to  restrain 
overflowings  of  the  river  Po,  had  encouraged 
agriculture  and  commerce,  and  by  his  rigorous 
enforcement  of  justice  and  the  maintenance  of 
an  efficient  police  had  made  his  city  a  far  safer 
place  to  live  in  than  Rome,  where,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  robbery  and  murder  were  matters 
of  nightly  occurrence.  Laws  were  made  at  the 
Duke's  pleasure,  and  they  were  administered  by 
twelve  judges  who  openly  purchased  their  appoint- 
ments, but  Ercole  is  said  never  to  have  permitted 
the  purchase  by  any  person  unfit  for  the  office, 
and  should  any  gross  miscarriage  of  justice  occur, 
the  offender  was  promptly  dismissed.  Rioting 
was  prevented  by  prohibiting  the  citizens  from 
carrying  arms,  either  by  day  or  night,  on  penalty 
of  being  flogged  by  the  city  guard  and  the  arms 
confiscated.  Whoever  attempted  to  rescue  a 
prisoner  from  the  custody  of  the  police  was  liable 
to  the  same  punishment  as  the  culprit  himself. 
Gambling  was  prohibited  in  any  public  place, 
under  penalty  of  a  fine  and  one  month's  imprison- 
ment. Although  duelling  was  prohibited,  the 
custom  was  too  firmly  rooted  amongst  the  higher 
classes,  and  could  not  be  prevented.  Owing  to 
the  enormous  increase  of  the  population  being 
largely  due  to  the  influx  of  fugitives,  of  unknown 

245 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

or  sometimes  of  too  well-known  character,  from 
other  States,  a  system  of  passports  was  instituted. 
Every  boatman  or  carman  bringing  strangers  into 
the  city  was  obliged,  under  penalty  of  fine  or 
imprisonment,  either  to  conduct  them  to  the 
police  office  or  to  give  immediate  notice  of  their 
arrival.  Every  stranger  had  to  pay  one  solda 
to  the  podesta  on  his  arrival  and  another  on  his 
departure.  Whoever  allowed  a  stranger  to  remain 
in  his  house  without  giving  notice  to  the  authorities 
was  liable  to  a  fine  of  a  hundred  scudi. 

The  markets  and  the  food-supply  of  the  city 
were  strictly  regulated  and  supervised  by 
inspectors.  The  price,  weight,  and  also  the  quality 
of  the  bread  were  fixed  by  law.  The  penalty  on  a 
baker  for  giving  short  weight  was  a  severe  fine 
for  the  first  offence,  and  for  a  second  offence 
flogging  and  imprisonment.  Moreover  Ercole 
proclaimed  that  inasmuch  as  it  was  known  that 
there  were  bakers  who  kneaded  the  dough  with 
their  feet,  which  frequently  were  not  clean,  such 
practice  would  be  punished  with  fine  or  imprison- 
ment ;  and  bakers  were  strictly  enjoined  to  work 
their  dough  with  clean  hands  and  nails.  Butchers 
were  looked  after  equally  well ;  the  price  of  every 
joint  was  fixed  by  the  authorities,  and  all  bad 
meat  was  seized  and  destroyed.  Every  wine-seller 
had  to  procure  a  licence,  and  none  were  issued 
except  to  persons  who  brought  testimonials  of 
good  character.  Adulteration  was  severely 
punished  ;  all  wine  entering  the  city  was  tested 
by  the  officials,  no  colouring-matter  was  allowed, 
246 


LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

and  any  wine  found  to  be  of  bad  quality   was 
destroyed. 

There  were  laws  of  extreme  severity  against 
women  of  disreputable  character,  notwith- 
standing that  the  Duke  and  his  nobility  were  by  no 
means  of  impeccable  behaviour.  Any  woman  con- 
victed to  the  satisfaction  of  the  judge  of  leading 
a  disorderly  or  disreputable  life  was  condemned 
to  a  fine  of  twenty-five  livres,  and  to  be  imprisoned 
for  two  months.  If  unable  to  pay  the  fine,  she 
was  placed  in  a  pillory  in  some  public  part  of  the 
city.  If  she  offended  again  after  this,  both  she 
and  the  keeper  of  the  house  in  which  she  lived 
were  banished  from  the  city,  their  effects  con- 
fiscated and  sold,  and  the  proceeds  devoted  to  a 
fund  for  repairing  the  cathedral.  It  was  also 
prescribed  that,  in  order  to  secure  their  recognition 
in  case  they  attempted  to  return,  their  noses  should 
be  cut  off.  Both  Ercole  and  Alfonso  carried  out 
the  provisions  of  this  law,  which  was  older  than 
their  time,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have  effected 
its  purpose.  Down  to  1530,  debtors  were  treated 
with  much  harshness,  being  imprisoned  in  the 
same  place  as  the  vilest  of  criminals.  At  one  time, 
if  a  man  could  not  meet  his  obligations,  from  what- 
ever cause,  it  was  customary  to  carry  him  round 
the  city  on  a  car,  surrounded  by  police  officers 
and  accompanied  by  a  trumpeter,  that  his  offence 
might  be  known  to  all.  Afterwards  he  was  exposed 
on  a  pillory  for  three  days  with  a  green  cap  on  his 
head. 

Over  and  over  again,  laws  had  been  promulgated 

247 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

to  restrain  what  one  of  them  described  as  "  the  insane 
passion  of  women  for  dress ;  "  but,  as  may  readily 
be  supposed,  with  very  little  effect.  Leonello,  Duke 
Ercole's  eldest  brother,  had  endeavoured  to  enlist 
the  male  portion  of  his  subjects  in  a  rather  sur- 
reptitious campaign  against  the  sumptuary  sins  of 
the  females.  He  called  a  private  meeting  "  for 
men  only,"  and  asked  his  audience  if  there  was 
one  amongst  them  who  did  not  agree  that  the 
expenditure  of  women  on  dress  was  most  extra- 
vagant and  reprehensible  to  get  up  and  say  so. 
Of  course  nobody  spoke  ;  and  consequently  when 
he  proposed  a  resolution  declaring  war  against  the 
long  trains  of  ladies'  gowns,  their  large  open  sleeves 
lined  with  costly  fur,  and  other  expensive  items 
of  feminine  adornment,  it  was  carried  unanimously. 
He  then  promulgated  an  edict  prohibiting  any 
woman  from  spending  more  than  a  third  of  her 
dowry  on  dress  and  jewellery,  and  rendering  it 
penal  for  traders  to  furnish  women  with  goods  on 
credit,  or  in  any  way  assist  them  to  evade  this 
law.  Ladies  were  prohibited  from  wearing  trains 
to  their  dresses  beyond  a  specified  moderate  length  ; 
and  the  wives  of  farmers  or  the  bourgeoisie  were 
forbidden  to  wear  silk,  or  ornaments  of  pearls, 
gold,  or  even  silver.  In  order  to  prevent  evasion 
of  this  law  indoors,  Leonello  contrived  a  plan 
whereby  timid  husbands  or  fathers  might  give 
information  to  the  authorities  with  impunity.  A 
box  with  a  slit  in  its  lid  was  placed  just  inside 
the  entrance  door  of  the  Cathedral,  beside  the 
font,  so  that  any  man  wishing  to  give  information 
248 


LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

against  a  lady  who  wore  trains  or  long  sleeves  or 
any  other  of  the  prohibited  adornments  might 
deftly  drop  in  his  secret  accusation  with  one  hand 
whilst  crossing  himself  with  holy  water  with  the 
other.  There  were  three  keys  to  this  tell-tale  box, 
one  held  by  an  officer  of  the  twelve  judges,  one 
by  an  officer  of  the  podesta,  and  one  by  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  syndic,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
prosecute  any  lady  so  charged  with  defying  the 
law.  But  Leonardo's  edict  had  no  better  success 
than  many  other  attempts  to  stem  the  tide  of 
extravagance  in  dress  that  were  made  in  Ferrara 
and  elsewhere,  especially  in  Venice,  which  set  the 
fashions  for  Italy  then  as  Paris  does  for  Europe 
now. 

The  Ferrarese  nobility  were  lavish  in  their 
hospitality,  and  on  all  festive  occasions  vied  with 
one  another  in  the  profusion  and  expensiveness 
of  their  banquets.  Of  course  this  came  to  be 
imitated  by  wealthy  burghers,  and  more  than  one 
law  was  made  to  check  the  wastefulness  that 
ensued.  There  were  few  cities  which  surpassed 
Ferrara  in  the  gaiety  and  brilliance  of  its  carnival, 
but  Ercole  would  not  permit  maskers  to  go  about 
in  the  dress  of  monks  or  nuns,  as  was  the  practice 
in  Venice,  on  account  of  the  licence  and  scandal 
to  which  it  gave  occasion.  And  he  introduced 
into  the  festivities  a  unique  ceremony  called  the 
Ventura.  Shortly  after  nightfall  on  the  evening  of 
the  Epiphany  it  was  his  custom  to  make  a  progress 
through  all  the  principal  streets  of  the  city,  accom- 
panied by  a  train  of  nobles  and  courtiers,  and 

249 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

attended  by  a  large  number  of  carts  headed  by 
a  band  of  music.  The  procession  stopped  at  the 
houses  of  all  the  principal  nobles  and  citizens, 
who  each  brought  out  a  contribution  of  some 
kind  of  food,  which  was  placed  in  the  carts.  When 
the  procession  returned  to  the  palace  about  mid- 
night, the  collectors  ate  a  hearty  supper  of  the 
viands  they  had  thus  procured,  and  next  morning 
the  remainder  of  it  was  distributed  amongst  the 
poor.  One  of  the  chroniclers  relates  that  in  1503, 
the  first  carnival  after  Lucrezia's  arrival  in  Ferrara, 
the  food  collected  on  the  first  night  of  the  Duke's 
Ventura  consisted  of  15  lambs,  15  oxen,  13  calves, 
5  goats,  5  rabbits,  2  pigs,  66  ducks,  1521  capons, 
22  turkeys,  73  partridges,  18  peacocks,  60  quails, 
191  cheeses,  250  boxes  of  confectionery,  and  190 
large  sausages.  The  ceremony  was  repeated  three 
nights  in  succession ;  and,  after  making  ample 
allowance  for  the  appetite  of  the  collectors,  there 
must  have  been  more  than  a  good  meal  left  for 
the  table  of  every  poor  person  in  Ferrara. 

The  fine  arts  received  much  encouragement  at 
the  Court  of  the  Este,  and  Ercole,  who  loved  music, 
maintained  a  numerous  band  of  musicians,  not 
merely  to  enliven  balls,  masquerades,  and  other 
secular  diversions,  but  to  perform  in  the  splendid 
religious  festivals  which  he  was  fond  of  attending 
in  the  cathedral.  It  was  literature,  however,  and 
especially  poetry,  for  which  Ferrara  was  most 
renowned.  Antonio  Tebaldeo,  the  two  Strozzi, 
Tito,  and  Ercole,  as  well  as  a  host  of  minor  poets, 
lauded  Lucrezia  in  Latin  or  Italian  verse ;  and 
250 


LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

the  great  Ariosto,  who  welcomed  her  on  her  arrival 
in  a  Latin  epithalamium,  afterwards  made  a 
flattering  reference  to  her  in  his  immortal  "  Orlando 
Furioso."  Gregorovius  says  that  the  people,  like 
the  city,  seem  to  have  been  of  a  serious  cast,  and 
given  to  the  cultivation  of  the  exact  sciences. 
But  this  needs  to  be  taken  with  the  important 
qualification  that  there  were  no  exact  sciences. 
Military  and  civil  engineering,  to  which  both 
Ercole  and  his  son  Alfonso  were  devoted,  attained 
to  a  higher  degree  of  excellence  there  than  anywhere 
else  in  Europe.  But  both  theoretical  and  applied 
science  were  then  in  their  infancy.  For  example, 
there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  public  clock  in  the 
whole  of  Ferrara,  with  the  exception  of  a  large 
dial  affixed  to  one  of  the  towers  of  Castle  Vecchio ; 
and  this  timepiece  was  moved,  not  by  machinery, 
but  by  a  man  inside,  who  turned  the  hands  and 
struck  the  hours,  with  nothing  better  than  an 
hour-glass  to  regulate  his  procedure. 

An  equally  illuminating  example  may  be  taken 
from  the  state  of  medicine  and  surgery.  As  in 
England  and  elsewhere  at  the  same  period,  the 
art  of  the  surgeon  was  combined  with  the  humbler 
craft  of  the  barber ;  a  fact  which  only  becomes 
intelligible  when  we  remember  that  simple  blood- 
letting was  then  considered  a  remedy  for  almost 
every  disorder.  The  discovery  of  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  and  the  consequent  rise  of  modern 
medicine,  did  not  take  place  until  a  hundred  years 
later.  The  virtues  of  rhubarb,  aloes,  and  some 
other  simple,  although  of  course  still  valuable, 

251 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

remedies  were  well  known.  But  in  case  of  sick- 
ness people  placed  as  much  reliance  on  the  astro- 
loger as  on  the  physician.  Ferrara,  like  Padua 
and  Bologna,  was  celebrated  for  its  school  of 
medicine,  but  some  notion  of  the  qualifications  of 
its  practitioners  may  be  obtained  from  the  perusal 
of  a  medical  diploma  granted  there  as  late  as  1642, 
which  the  historian  Citadella  discovered  in  the 
archives  of  Ferrara,  and  which  William  Gilbert 
saw,  engraved  on  parchment,  in  the  library  of 
that  city.  A  certain  Generoso  Marini,  wishing  to 
practise  as  an  authorised  physician,  applied  to  the 
judges  for  a  diploma,  and  duly  presented  himself 
for  their  examination.  What  happened  is  thus 
set  forth  in  the  document  itself,  which  is  duly 
signed  by  "  Joannes  Cajetanus  Modoni,  Judex 
sapientum  civitatis  Ferrari,"  and  "  Franciscus 
Altramari,  Cancellarius." 

"  Having  publicly  examined  and  approved  the 
science  and  knowledge  of  medicine  of  Signor 
Generoso  Marini,  and  his  possession  of  the  wonder- 
ful secret  called  orvietano,  which  he  exhibited  on 
the  stage  built  in  the  centre  of  the  Piazza  of  this 
our  city  of  Ferrara,  in  presence  of  its  entire  popula- 
tion (so  remarkable  for  their  civilisation  and 
learning)  and  in  presence  of  many  foreigners  and 
other  classes  of  people,  we  hereby  certify  that, 
in  our  presence  also  as  well  as  that  of  the  city 
authorities,  he  took  several  living  toads,  not  those 
of  his  own  providing,  which  might  have  given 
suspicion  of  deception  on  his  part,  but  from  a 
great  number  of  toads  which  had  been  caught  in 
252 


LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

fields  of  the  locality  by  persons  who  were  strangers 
to  him,  and  which  were  only  handed  to  him  at 
the  moment  of  making  the  experiment.  An  officer 
of  the  court  then  selected  from  the  number  of 
toads  collected  five  of  the  largest,  which  the  said 
Generoso  Marini  placed  on  a  bench  before  him, 
and,  in  presence  of  all  the  assembled  spectators, 
he  cut  all  the  said  toads  in  half  with  a  large  knife. 
Then,  taking  a  drinking-cup,  he  took  in  each  hand 
one  half  of  a  dead  toad  and  squeezed  from  it  all 
the  fluids  and  juices  it  contained  into  the  cup  ; 
and  the  same  he  did  with  the  remainder.  After 
mixing  the  contents  together  he  swallowed  the 
whole  ;  and  then,  placing  the  cup  on  the  bench, 
he  advanced  to  the  edge  of  the  stage,  where  for 
some  minutes  he  remained  stationary.  Then  he 
became  pale  as  death,  and  his  limbs  trembled,  and 
his  body  began  to  swell  in  a  frightful  manner,  and 
all  the  spectators  began  to  believe  that  he  would 
never  recover  from  the  poison  he  had  swallowed, 
and  that  his  death  was  certain.  Suddenly,  taking 
from  a  jar  by  his  side  some  of  his  celebrated 
orvietano,  he  placed  a  portion  of  it  in  his  mouth 
and  swallowed  it.  Instantly  the  effect  of  this 
wonderful  medicine  was  to  make  him  vomit  the 
poison  he  had  taken  ;  and  he  stood  before  the 
spectators  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  health.  The 
populace  applauded  him  highly  for  the  indisputable 
proof  he  had  given  of  his  great  talent.  And  he 
then  invited  many  of  the  most  learned  of  those 
present  to  accompany  him  to  his  house,  and  he 
there  showed  them  his  dispensary,  as  well  as  his 

253 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

collection  of  many  antidotes,  and  among  them  a 
powder  made  from  little  vipers,  a  powerful  remedy 
in  curing  every  sort  of  fever,  as  he  had  proved  by 
different  experiments  he  made  on  people  of  quality 
and  virtue,  all  of  whom  he  had  cured  of  the  fevers 
under  which  they  were  suffering.  He  also  exhibited 
a  wonderful  balsam  he  had  invented,  which  cured 
with  great  rapidity  all  bruises  and  wounds,  as 
well  as  burns  and  scalds  of  every  description.  The 
said  Generoso  Marini  has  also  great  skill  in  drawing 
teeth,  in  which  he  exhibited  an  extraordinary 
dexterity.  But  that  which  most  distinguished  him 
was  his  wonderful  power  in  restoring  many  persons 
to  health  who  were  suffering  from  divers  incurable 
diseases.  In  consequence  of  the  rare  talent 
exhibited  by  Signer  Generoso  Marini,  and  as  a 
proof  of  our  love  and  respect  for  his  wisdom,  we 
have  resolved  by  the  authority  placed  in  our 
hands  publicly  to  reward  him  with  our  diploma, 
so  that  he  may  be  universally  recognised,  applauded, 
and  respected.  In  witness  whereof  we  here  set  our 
hands  auid  the  public  seal  of  the  municipality  of 
Ferrara." 

It  is  not  very  wonderful  that  Lucrezia's  letters 
are  plentifully  besprinkled  with  pious  expressions, 
and  that  she  eventually  devoted  herself  almost 
entirely  to  exercises  of  devotion,  for  both  her 
father-in-law  and  her  husband  were  strict  observers 
of  all  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church. 
Every  year  when  Holy  Week  came  round,  Duke 
Ercole  publicly  washed  the  feet  of  a  number  of 
poor  men,  whom  he  and  his  family  afterwards 
254 


LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

waited  on  at  dinner,  and  to  each  of  whom  he 
presented  a  pair  of  thick  shoes,  a  black  cap,  some 
stuff  for  a  doublet  or  shirt,  and  half  a  ducat  in 
money.  At  first  the  number  so  dealt  with  was 
twelve,  as  representing  the  number  of  the  Apostles, 
but  it  was  afterwards  increased,  and  the  year 
after  Lucrezia's  arrival  in  the  city  she  and  her 
husband  and  her  brothers-in-law  were  called  upon 
to  assist  at  such  an  entertainment  of  no  less  than 
one  hundred  and  sixty  poor  men. 

Duke  Ercole  was  also  very  fond  of  scenic  per- 
formances of  religious  subjects,  on  which  he 
lavished  large  sums  of  money.  The  "  Adoration 
of  the  Magi,"  the  "  Annunciation  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin,"  the  "  Passion,"  and  other  pictorial  settings 
of  Biblical  events  were  performed  in  the  Cathedral 
with  great  splendour,  the  Duke's  servants  and 
singers  being  dressed  up  to  represent  Angels,  the 
Virgin,  Jesus  Christ,  and  even  the  Almighty 
himself.  And  there  were  frequent  processions  of 
a  similar  character  in  the  streets.  An  account  of 
one  of  these  processions,  taken  from  Lancellotti's 
chronicle,  is  quoted  by  Gilbert.  A  body  of  men 
dressed  as  prophets  and  angels  paraded  the  streets, 
followed  by  one  attired  (how  we  are  not  told)  to 
represent  God  Almighty.  Then  came  three  donkeys 
carrying  paniers  filled  with  food,  and  to  these  suc- 
ceeded a  giant,  a  bear,  three  magi  on  horseback, 
the  Virgin  with  her  Child,  and  then  two  devils. 
Virtue  walked  along  flogged  by  demons  and 
followed  by  Envy.  Then  came  a  group  of  devils 
held  in  custody  by  Saints  Paul  and  Bernard. 

255 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

A  dead  Christ  was  borne  along  followed  by  his 
twelve  disciples  and  by  nuns,  monks,  and  a  solitary 
philosopher.  St.  Dominic,  St.  Francesco,  and 
St.  Sebastian  were  drawn  along  on  a  car  by 
buffaloes.  A  dead  Virgin,  with  St.  Michael,  and 
surrounded  by  the  twelve  Apostles,  appeared  on 
another  car ;  and  so  on.  The  procession  was 
accompanied  by  a  number  of  nobles  on  horseback, 
and  followed  by  a  crowd  of  pedestrians  estimated 
at  about  twelve  thousand. 

The  Duke  was  opposed  to  Sunday  trading  and 
one  of  his  edicts  commanded  that  "  no  butchers 
shall  presume  to  sell  meat  on  Sundays,  or  fast  days 
appointed  to  be  kept  holy  by  the  Church,  or 
during  Lent,  either  in  the  Piazza  or  other  public 
place,  or  expose  it  for  sale  in  any  way."  An  in- 
fringement of  this  law  was  punishable  by  fine, 
one-fourth  of  which  went  to  the  poor,  one-fourth 
to  the  police,  one-fourth  to  the  Duke,  and  one- 
fourth  to  the  informer.  But  the  butchers  were 
allowed  to  sell  their  meat  on  these  days  provided 
they  did  it  secretly  in  their  shops,  and  opened 
their  doors  no  more  than  was  necessary  for  a 
customer  to  enter.  Ercole  was  also  greatly  angered 
at  the  objectionable  practice  of  swearing  in  the 
streets.  Another  of  his  edicts  quaintly  sets  forth 
that,  desiring  to  make  provision  for  those  whose 
own  sense  of  right,  and  reverence  for  their  Divine 
maker,  is  not  strong  enough  to  make  them  eschew 
such  a  thing,  and  knowing  that  temporal  punish- 
ment, as  being  nearer,  is  more  feared  than  a  greater 
punishment  hereafter,  he  ordains  that  offenders 
256 


LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

in  this  respect  shall  be  punished  in  a  variety  of 
more  or  less  unpleasant  ways,  one  being  the  nailing 
of  the  offender's  tongue  to  a  log  of  wood.  Ercole 
was  tolerant  of  the  Jews,  but  they  were  condemned 
to  live  in  a  specified  quarter  of  the  city,  and  were 
governed  by  special  laws.  In  1496  he  ordained 
that  all  Jews,  with  the  exception  of  bankers  and 
doctors  of  medicine,  should  wear  a  yellow  badge, 
of  at  least  four  inches  in  breadth,  on  the  left 
shoulder.  Owing  to  his  toleration  there  were  more 
Jews  in  Ferrara  in  proportion  to  its  population 
than  in  any  other  city  of  Italy.  Astrology  was  a 
favourite  study  of  many  people  in  high  position, 
and  might  therefore  be  practised  with  impunity. 
But  for  vulgar  witchcraft  there  was  no  toleration, 
and  several  wretched  old  women  were  put  to  death 
for  this  unpardonable  crime  during  Lucrezia's 
residence  in  Ferrara. 

For  some  months  she  seems  to  have  led  a  very 
quiet  life.  Castle  Vecchio,  which  Duke  Ercole 
appropriated  to  his  son  and  daughter-in-law  for 
their  residence,  still  stands  as  one  of  the  most 
imposing  architectural  monuments  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  It  is  an  enormous,  gloomy-looking  strong- 
hold, with  four  great  towers  overlooking  the  whole 
of  Ferrara.  It  was  connected  by  a  gallery,  and  a 
subterranean  passage  under  the  moat,  with  the 
Estense  Palace.  For  some  years  it  had  been  used 
mainly  as  an  arsenal,  but  to  make  it  an  appropriate 
dwelling  for  the  heir-apparent  and  his  wife  it  was 
decorated  and  fitted  up  with  great  luxury.  In 
May  1502  Lucrezia  suffered  from  low  fever  and 

R  257 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

ague,  so  Duke  Ercole  sent  her  off  to  his  country 
palace  at  Belriguardo,  some  ten  miles  distant 
from  the  city.  From  the  first  she  seems  to  have 
been  on  very  good  terms  with  her  father-in-law. 
The  day  after  her  arrival  at  Belriguardo  she  wrote 
to  thank  him  for  a  kind  letter  and  some  fish  he 
had  sent  her,  and  to  say  that  she  found  the  place 
far  more  beautiful  than  she  had  anticipated.  As 
time  went  on,  and  she  promised  to  become  a 
mother,  he  grew  more  anxious  about  her  health, 
and  desired  her  to  write  to  him  daily.  On 
August  10  she  reports  that,  although  suffering 
greatly  from  fever  the  previous  day,  she  had  slept 
for  five  hours  during  the  night  and  felt  greatly 
refreshed.  On  the  following  day  she  gave  a  better 
account  of  herself,  but  shortly  after  she  had  a 
relapse,  and  Ercole  wrote  to  her  exhibiting  a  very 
affectionate  anxiety.  She  returned  to  Castle 
Vecchio  for  her  accouchement,  but  on  September  5 
the  hopes  of  the  Este  were  disappointed  by  the 
birth  of  a  stillborn  child.  She  had  hardly 
recovered  from  the  effects  of  this  when  she  was 
once  more  attacked  by  fever,  which  resisted  all 
the  remedies  prescribed  by  Dr.  Ludovico  Carri, 
the  Duke's  physician.  Her  father  became  alarmed, 
and  his  most  skilful  physician,  the  Bishop  of 
Venosa,  was  sent  off  post  haste  to  Ferrara  to  attend 
upon  her. 

Doctors  differed  in  Ferrara  in  the  sixteenth 
century  as  they  do  in  Harley  Street  at  the  present 
day.  The  Duke's  physician  appears  to  have  been 
a  practitioner  of  the  antiphlogistic  school,  and, 
258 


LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

like  Dr.  Sangrado  in  "Gil  Bias,"  pinned  his  faith 
on  plentiful  bleeding  and  copious  draughts  of 
pure  water.  The  Pope's  physician,  on  the  contrary, 
seems  to  have  favoured  a  treatment  rather  more 
like  that  of  modern  times.  When  the  latter  entered 
Lucrezia's  chamber,  Dr.  Ludovico  Carri,  lancet  in 
hand,  was  just  about  to  bleed  her  from  the  arm. 
The  clerical  medico  sprang  forward,  seized  the 
other  practitioner's  hand,  and  roundly  charged 
him  with  doing  his  best  to  murder  the  patient. 
Dr.  Carri  defended  his  method  of  practice,  declaring 
there  was  not  the  slightest  hope  of  Lucrezia's 
recovery  unless  she  were  plentifully  bled ;  and  a 
violent  dispute  ensued  between  the  rival  doctors 
at  the  patient's  bedside,  although  they  did  not 
come  to  fisticuffs  like  Gil  Bias  and  Dr.  Cuchillo. 
The  dispute  was  only  ended  by  Duke  Ercole 
ordering  Dr.  Carri  from  the  room  and  placing 
Lucrezia  under  the  care  of  her  father's  ecclesiastical 
physician.  Under  the  bishop's  treatment  she 
rapidly  recovered,  and  on  October  8  removed  from 
Castle  Vecchio  to  the  Convent  of  Corpus  Domini 
for  change  of  air. 

During  1503  and  1504  Lucrezia's  husband  was 
mostly  away  from  Ferrara  on  political  business. 
He  was  at  the  Court  of  France  at  the  time  of 
Pope  Alexander's  death  and  Cesare  Borgia's 
imprisonment.  But  although  Lucrezia  wrote, 
imploring  him  to  intercede  for  her  brother,  as  she 
did  also  to  the  Gonzaga  of  Mantua,  either  they 
did  nothing  or  their  representations  were  of  no 
effect.  After  the  death  of  Alexander  VI,  Lucrezia's 

259 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

son  Rodrigo  and  the  young  "  Infans  Romanus  " 
Giovanni  were  exposed  to  great  danger  in  Rome  ; 
but  she  did  not  have  them  sent  to  her  at  Ferrara. 
Young  Rodrigo  was  still  Duke  of  Bisceglia,  for 
Alexander  VI  had  obtained  a  diploma  from 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in  May  1502  confirming 
the  Borgian  family  in  the  possession  of  all  their 
Neapolitan  titles  and  estates.  But  Sermoneta  and 
the  numerous  other  possessions  bestowed  upon 
him  had  reverted  to  their  former  owners,  and 
young  Giovanni's  duchy  of  Camerino  had  been 
recaptured  by  the  last  survivor  of  the  Varani 
family.  Her  son's  guardian,  the  Cardinal  of 
Cosenza,  proposed  to  sell  Rodrigo's  personal  pro- 
perty and  send  him  to  Spain,  where  he  would  be 
safe,  and  when  Lucrezia  consulted  her  father-in- 
law  on  this  point  he  agreed  as  to  its  wisdom.  But 
the  children  seem  to  have  remained  for  a  time 
under  the  care  of  the  Spanish  cardinals  in  Rome, 
and  then  to  have  been  sent  to  live  under  the 
guardianship  of  the  Cardinals  Ludovico  Borgia  and 
Remolini  of  Sorrento  at  Naples.  Afterwards  they 
were  both  taken  charge  of  by  Rodrigo's  unfortu- 
nate aunt,  Isabella  of  Aragon,  widow  of  Gian- 
galleazzo  Sforza  of  Milan,  who,  on  the  downfall 
of  the  two  great  houses  of  Sforza  and  of  Aragon 
to  which  she  belonged,  had  retired  to  Bari,  of 
which  city  she  had  been  made  Duchess  by  Ludovico 
Sforza  in  1499,  and  where  she  lived  until  her  death 
in  1524. 

After  concluding  his  mission  to  France,  Alfonso 
of  Ferrara  had  gone  to  the  Court  of  the  Archduke 
260 


LIFE  IN  A  FIFTEENTH-CENTURY  CITY 

Charles  at  Brussels,  and  then  to  that  of  Henry  VII 
of  England.  He  was  just  on  the  point  of  setting 
out  to  continue  his  negotiations  at  the  Court  of 
Spain  when  a  messenger  arrived  to  inform  him 
of  the  alarming  state  of  health  of  his  father.  He  at 
once  returned  home,  where  he  found  that  his  wife 
had  had  another  miscarriage,  and  that  his  father, 
now  seventy-five  years  of  age,  was  at  the  point  of 
death. 


261 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA,  DUCHESS  OF 
FERRARA 

IT  was  fortunate  for  Ferrara  that  the  prince  who 
ascended  its  ducal  throne  in  January  1505  was  a 
man  of  intelligence  and  resolution,  for  it  was  his 
lot  to  fight  against  famine,  plague,  invasion,  ex- 
communication, and  the  machinations  of  a  Pope 
as  ready  to  absorb  his  state  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Church  as  Alexander  VI  would  have  been  to  do 
so  on  behalf  of  his  own  family.     The  winter  of 
1505  proved  particularly  severe,  and  the  following 
spring    exceptionally    dry.     Meat    and    vegetables 
became  very  scarce,  and  as  the  surrounding  farmers 
and  peasantry,  reduced  to  a  state  of  destitution, 
were   totally   unable   to   supply   the   city's   needs, 
Alfonso,    taking   all   the   available   money   in   his 
treasury,   went   off   to   Venice   to   purchase   food, 
leaving  Lucrezia  to  act  as  regent  during  his  absence. 
The  famine  lasted  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
summer,  and  the  stock  of  provisions  being  com- 
paratively short  in  Venice  also,  Alfonso  had  to  pay 
exorbitant  prices  for  anything  he  could  get.     The 
corn  which  he  sent  home  was  distributed  amongst 
the  most  needy  of  the  populace  under  the  direction 
of  Lucrezia  and  the  municipal  authorities.     It  is 
262 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

not  surprising  that  in  time  of  famine  there  should 
have  been  some  rioting.  This,  however,  Lucrezia 
put  down  with  a  firm  hand,  and  at  the  same  time 
showed  strict  impartiality  towards  all  classes  of 
her  subjects.  Some  of  the  mob,  imagining  that  the 
Jews  seemed  to  suffer  less  than  others,  made  an 
attack  on  their  quarter  of  the  city,  plundering  and 
burning  shops  and  houses  and  maltreating  the 
inhabitants.  In  almost  any  other  city  in  Europe 
this  would  have  been  passed  over  with  little  notice. 
But  Lucrezia  insisted  that  there  should  be  equal 
justice  for  all,  and  instantly  commanded  the  podesta 
not  only  to  repress  such  outrages,  but  to  punish 
those  who  injured  an  Israelite  with  the  same 
severity  as  those  who  injured  a  Christian. 

During  Alfonso's  absence  Lucrezia  kept  up  a 
constant  correspondence  with  him  concerning  both 
family  affairs  and  matters  of  state.  In  a  letter 
dated  July  11  she  thanks  him  for  his  offer  to  send 
her  another  physician,  but  thinks  there  is  no 
occasion  for  it,  as  she  feels  much  better.  She 
appears  to  have  been  suffering  from  a  tertian  ague, 
for  she  reports  that  last  night  she  slept  better  than 
the  night  before,  although  this  was  the  third,  and 
therefore  the  one  to  be  dreaded.  She  is  very  happy 
to  hear  that  he  is  well,  and  prays  that  the  Lord 
God  will  preserve  his  Excellency  in  good  health 
and  spirits.  And  she  concludes  :  "  Recommending 
myself  to  the  good  grace  of  your  Excellency,  I 
subscribe  myself  your  Excellency's  most  obedient 
consort,  Lucrezia."  A  much  longer  letter,  which 
was  commenced  on  the  12th  and  finished  on  the 

263 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

13th  of  July,  was  devoted  to  an  account  of  the 
killing  of  one  of  Alfonso's  gamekeepers  by  a  bailiff 
of  the  Procurator  of  Abbadia,  which  raised  a  case 
of  complicated  jurisdiction  in  which  she  did  not 
quite  know  how  to  act.  The  relatives  of  the  dead 
man  wanted  to  follow  the  said  bailiff  into  Abbadia, 
whither  he  had  fled  for  refuge,  but  had  been  for- 
bidden, so  as  to  avoid  all  appearance  of  private 
revenge.  The  captain  of  the  district,  however,  on 
making  application  to  have  the  man  given  up  to 
him  had  been  met  with  the  objection  that  Abbadia 
possessed  certain  privileges  which  took  the  matter 
out  of  the  Duke's  jurisdiction.  Moreover,  the 
commissary  of  Abbadia  had  written  to  say  that 
the  said  bailiff  had  been  furiously  attacked  by  the 
said  gamekeeper,  who  had  killed  him  in  self- 
defence  ;  and  that  the  said  bailiff  was  falconer  to 
the  reverend  cardinal,  who  had  inquired  into  the 
affair  and  decided  that  it  was  a  case  of  involuntary 
homicide.  She  had  sent  an  officer  to  inquire  into 
the  matter,  and  had  procured  some  evidence  ;  but 
being  afraid  of  doing  anything  that  might  show 
want  of  respect  to  the  dignity  of  the  reverend 
cardinal,  she  thought  it  well  to  receive  the  Duke's 
instructions  before  taking  any  further  steps. 

The  early  sixteenth- century  courier  was  not 
always  so  regular  and  punctual  as  the  modern 
postman.  On  one  occasion  Lucrezia,  who  had  been 
anxiously  awaiting  answers  to  several  of  her  letters, 
received  three  from  the  Duke  at  the  same  moment, 
dated  the  23rd,  24th  and  25th  of  the  month 
respectively.  Their  receipt,  she  declares,  gave  her 
264 


*£t. 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

such  consolation  and  pleasure  as  it  would  be 
impossible  to  express.  She  rejoices  to  hear  that 
his  Excellency  is  in  good  health  and  spirits,  and 
that  he  has  taken  ample  precautions  for  his  health 
and  security.  The  expressions  of  comfort  and 
courage  which  he  has  written  with  so  much  kind- 
ness of  heart  have  given  her  inexpressible  delight, 
and  she  will  now  pass  her  time  happily.  Altogether 
the  correspondence  represents  Lucrezia  in  a  very 
favourable  light,  and  shows  that  she  and  her 
husband  were  on  terms  of  confidence  and  affection. 
But  hardly  had  the  famine  abated  when  there 
came  a  visitation  of  the  plague.  In  one  of  her 
letters,  marked  on  the  outside,  "  Cito,  cito,  cito  !  " 
(Haste,  haste,  haste  1)  she  tells  Alfonso  that  the 
plague  has  broken  out  in  the  house  of  a  citizen 
named  Valentini,  who  has  since  died,  and  that  by 
the  loan  of  linen  and  other  articles  it  has  been 
communicated  to  other  houses,  where  more  deaths 
have  occurred.  Alfonso  hastened  back  to  Ferrara, 
and  proceeded  to  fight  the  dreadful  pest  with 
vigour  and  judgment.  Cordons  were  placed  round 
those  parts  of  the  city  most  seriously  affected, 
nobody  being  allowed  to  leave  or  enter  without 
permission.  Carts  were  sent  through  the  infected 
districts  daily  to  remove  all  plague- stricken  victims 
to  the  riverside,  whence  they  were  ferried  over  to 
a  small  island  called  II  Boschetto,  which  was 
turned  into  a  lazaretto.  Black  flags  with  death's 
heads  on  them  were  affixed  to  these  carts,  the 
attendants  wore  a  distinguishing  costume,  and  in 
front  of  each  of  them  walked  a  man  ringing  a  bell 

265 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

to  warn  all  who  were  uninfected  to  keep  out  of 
the  way.  Strict  cleanliness  was  enforced  through- 
out the  city  ;  and  any  one  attempting  to  enter  it 
without  a  clean  bill  of  health  was  liable  to  the 
punishment  of  death.  One  entry  in  the  books  of 
the  municipality  is  interesting  as  showing  how 
indefatigably  some  of  the  officials  exerted  them- 
selves and  also  the  personal  attention  of  the  Duke 
and  Duchess.  A  reward  of  fifty  livres  was  given  to 
Jacopo  Davento,  notary  of  the  twelve  judges,  for 
his  exertions  during  the  whole  time  of  the  plague 
in  assisting  the  said  judges  in  their  personal 
inspection  of  those  infected,  in  regulating  the 
ministrations  of  doctors,  barbers,  and  clergy,  in 
writing  an  infinite  number  of  letters,  and  in  carry- 
ing daily  to  the  illustrious  Duke  or  his  consort  the 
Duchess  Lucrezia  a  report  of  the  progress  of  the 
plague  and  also  of  the  condition  of  those  who  were 
sick.  Notwithstanding  her  condition,  Lucrezia  re- 
mained in  the  city  until  she  collapsed,  when  she 
was  removed  to  Mutinae,  where,  a  fortnight  after- 
wards, she  was  delivered  of  another  stillborn  child. 
Alfonso  d'Este  had  none  of  that  taste  for 
theatrical  display  which  was  so  prominent  a 
characteristic  of  his  father.  He  devoted  himself 
with  great  ardour  and  perseverance  to  mechanical 
studies  and  experiments,  his  chief  interest  being 
the  casting  of  metals  and  the  manufacture  of 
cannon.  This  he  carried  out  so  successfully  that 
his  artillery  was  the  best  in  Italy,  if  not  in  the 
whole  of  Europe,  and  enabled  him  to  win  more 
than  one  battle  against  otherwise  superior  forces. 
266 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

He  also  established  a  manufacture  of  porcelain  and 
a  school  for  its  design  and  ornamentation,  occa- 
sionally painting  with  his  own  hand  some  of  the 
majolica  vases  which  became  a  specialty  of  Ferrara. 
He  bestowed  great  pains  on  the  training  of  skilful 
workmen,  whose  society  he  seems  to  have  pre- 
ferred to  that  of  his  rather  scandalised  and  dis- 
contented nobles.  He  not  only  equipped  a  sort 
of  clubroom  for  them,  with  books,  chess  and  other 
recreations,  and  formed  a  band  of  musicians  with 
himself  as  instructor,  but  sometimes  even  invited 
the  more  skilful  of  these  workmen  to  a  seat  at  his 
dinner-table,  which  was  more  often  in  the  foundry 
than  in  the  palace.  Meantime  he  left  the  main- 
tenance of  a  brilliant  court  and  the  patronage  of 
literature,  learning  and  art  to  his  wife. 

There  has  been  some  exaggeration  as  to  Lucrezia's 
own  culture  and  literary  acquirements,  but  there  is 
no  doubt  that  at  the  court  of  Ferrara  she  played 
the  part  of  a  patroness  of  literature  and  learning. 
And  she  was  repaid  in  the  way  that  crowned 
patronesses  usually  are.  Giorgio  Robusto  dedicated 
a  volume  of  poems  to  her  ;  Antonio  Cornazzano 
his  terza  rima  Life  of  the  Virgin  and  Life  of  Christ ; 
Aldus  Manutius  several  of  the  works  which  appeared 
from  his  celebrated  press ;  and  Ariosto  would 
doubtless  have  dedicated  to  her  the  Orlando  Furioso 
had  he  not  been  in  the  pay  of  her  brother-in-law 
Cardinal  Ippolito,  and  therefore  under  obligation 
to  make  the  dedication  to  him.  The  praises  of  her 
beauty  and  virtue  were  sung  by  Antonio  Tebaldeo, 
one  of  the  literary  ornaments  of  the  court,  who  had 

267 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

originally  been  a  physician,  but  having  a  fine  voice 
and  great  proficiency  on  the  lute,  acquired  some 
celebrity  by  singing  songs  of  which  both  the  words 
and  the  music  were  of  his  own  composition. 
Tebaldeo,  having  given  up  medicine  for  music, 
finally  abandoned  music  for  literature,  and  attained 
considerable  eminence  both  for  his  Latin  and 
Italian  versification.  The  two  Strozzi,  Tito  the 
father  and  Ercole  the  son,  equally  eminent  as 
poets,  lauded  her  in  almost  identical  terms;  and 
Pietro  Bembo  professed  not  merely  a  poetical 
devotion  but  something  more. 

Bembo,  the  Venetian  humorist,  who  afterwards 
became  secretary  to  Pope  Leo  X  and  a  cardinal, 
visited  Ferrara  in  the  early  part  of  1503,  when  he 
was  thirty-three  years  of  age,  in  company  with  his 
father ;  and  found  the  society  of  the  place  so 
congenial  that  he  remained  for  nearly  three  years. 
Whilst  living  with  his  poetic  friends  the  Strozzi 
he  commenced  a  correspondence  with  Lucrezia, 
which  was  maintained  to  the  end  of  her  life.  His 
letters  are  printed  in  his  works ;  and  in  the 
Ambrosian  Library  of  Milan  are  preserved  the 
manuscript  of  nine  letters  which  Lucrezia  wrote  to 
him.  These  letters,  seven  in  Italian  and  two  in 
Spanish,  which  are  in  the  handwriting  of  Lucrezia 
and  of  undoubted  authenticity,  are  enclosed  in  a 
folding  of  white  vellum,  tied  with  four  ribands, 
and  accompanied  by  some  verses  in  Spanish  and 
a  lock  of  yellow  hair  which  tradition  asserts  to  be 
one  of  the  tresses  of  Lucrezia  Borgia.  This  interest- 
ing relic,  which  was  evidently  tenderly  preserved 
268 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

by  Bembo  as  a  memento  of  his  charmer,  has  given 
rise  to  much  discussion.  By  some  it  has  been 
taken  as  a  proof  that  even  in  Ferrara  Lucrezia's 
life  was  not  so  strictly  virtuous  as  it  ought  to  have 
been.  There  is  no  doubt  about  Bembo  having 
been  in  love  with  the  beautiful  Duchess  ;  he  con- 
fided his  passion  to  his  friends  the  Strozzi,  and 
his  letters  are  those  of  a  most  ardent  admirer. 
Some  of  her  letters  to  him  are  admitted  even  by 
her  apologists  to  contain  very  warm  expressions 
of  attachment,  "  certainly  to  the  extreme  point 
that  '  platonic  love  '  could  go."  It  is  likely  enough 
that  the  handsome,  witty,  accomplished  Venetian 
cavalier  cast  her  rather  rough  and  uncouth  Alfonso 
completely  in  the  shade,  and  inspired  something 
more  than  mere  friendship  in  the  breast  of  Lucrezia. 
But  there  is  no  proof  whatever  that  their  inter- 
course passed  the  bounds  of  propriety.  At  the 
same  time,  it  is  probable  enough,  as  Gregorovius 
suggests,  that  Bembo's  retirement  from  the  court 
of  Ferrara  to  that  of  Guidobaldo  of  Urbino  in 
1506  was  due  to  his  desire  to  be  at  a  safe  distance 
from  danger  that  threatened  him  on  account  of  the 
jealousy  of  Duke  Alfonso. 

The  danger  to  be  feared  from  the  jealousy  of 
princes  was  strikingly  illustrated  by  a  painful 
occurrence  which  happened  just  before  Bembo's 
departure  from  Ferrara.  Angela  Borgia,  sister  of 
Cardinal  Ludovico,  who  is  described  by  one  of  the 
Ferrarese  chroniclers  as  a  very  beautiful  girl,  had 
accompanied  Lucrezia  from  Rome  as  her  chief 
maid  of  honour.  Amongst  her  many  admirers  was 

269 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

the  handsome  and  dissolute  young  Cardinal  Ippolito, 
Alfonso's  brother.  It  seems  probable  that  Angela 
encouraged  the  amorous  cardinal  up  to  a  certain 
point ;  but  when  he  became  too  pressing  she 
treated  his  protestations  of  love  with  ridicule,  and 
at  length,  to  rid  herself  of  his  importunities,  told 
him  candidly  that  her  affections  were  engaged  to 
another.  Ippolito,  who  was  well  served  by  a  set 
of  secret  spies,  received  intelligence  that  the 
favoured  rival  was  no  other  than  his  own  illegitimate 
brother  Giulio.  As  soon  as  he  learned  this  he 
obtained  an  interview  with  Angela  and  demanded 
to  know  whether  the  report  were  true  or  not.  Far 
from  denying  it,  Angela  avowed  her  preference  for 
Giulio,  whereupon  the  cardinal  lost  his  temper, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  altercation  that  ensued 
Angela  tauntingly  declared  that  the  beautiful  eyes 
of  Giulio  were  dearer  to  her  than  those  of  any 
other  person  in  the  world.  Enraged  beyond 
measure  at  this,  the  infuriated  cardinal  departed 
and  planned  a  diabolical  revenge.  Four  of  his 
hired  ruffians  waylaid  Giulio  as  he  was  returning 
from  a  day's  hunting  at  Lucrezia's  country  seat 
of  Belriguardo,  and  by  the  cardinal's  orders  and 
in  his  presence  attempted  to  blind  the  young  prince 
by  putting  out  the  eyes  which  Angela  had  found 
so  fascinating.  This  dastardly  crime,  which  took 
place  on  November  3,  1505,  did  not  succeed  quite 
so  completely  as  its  perpetrators  desired ;  for 
although  Giulio  lost  one  eye,  the  other  was  saved 
by  the  skill  of  his  surgeons.  The  injured  prince 
demanded  that  his  assailant  should  be  punished 
270 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

in  biblical  fashion  by  an  eye  for  an  eye.  But 
although  the  hired  bravos  were  hanged,  it  was 
difficult  to  deal  adequately  with  an  offender  of 
Ippolito's  secular  and  ecclesiastical  rank  and  dignity, 
so  that  Alfonso  had  to  be  contented  with  banishing 
his  cruel  brother  from  the  territories  of  Ferrara. 

But  the  matter  did  not  end  there.  Many  of  the 
nobles  complained  of  the  banishment  of  the  gay 
Ippolito  as  too  severe  a  punishment,  and  protested 
against  the  Duke's  despotism.  There  was  also  a 
strong  party  amongst  the  nobility  who  were  dis- 
contented at  Alfonso's  absorption  in  his  foundry 
and  manufactories,  and  the  consequent  absence  of 
that  pomp  and  display  to  which  they  had  been 
accustomed  in  the  time  of  Duke  Ercole.  A  revolu- 
tion was  decided  upon,  and  a  plot  formed  to  murder 
Alfonso  and  to  place  on  the  throne  in  his  stead  his 
brother  Ferrante,  an  ambitious  and  unscrupulous 
prince  who  had  been  brought  up  at  the  frivolous 
court  of  Naples,  and  who  regarded  what  he  con- 
sidered the  low  mechanical  tastes  of  his  brother 
with  disgust.  Giulio,  who  was  deeply  aggrieved 
because  Ippolito  had  not  been  punished  more 
severely,  was  induced  to  join  the  conspirators,  but 
only  on  condition  that  the  cardinal  should  be  put 
to  death  also,  a  stipulation  to  which  Ferrante 
agreed  because  of  his  anxiety  to  obtain  Giulio's 
co-operation.  Some  delay  was  caused  by  this,  for 
Giulio  was  so  eager  to  avenge  the  loss  of  his  eye 
that  he  insisted  on  the  cardinal  being  killed  first, 
whilst  Ferrante  wished  to  make  sure  of  the  Duke. 
This  being  adjusted,  however,  according  to 

271 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Ferrante's  plan,  the  conspirators  secured  the  ser- 
vices of  four  persons  who  were  continually  about 
the  person  of  the  Duke,  Count  Albertino  Boschetti, 
his  son-in-law  Roberto,  who  was  a  captain  of  the 
palace  guard,  Count  Giovanni  de  Gherrario,  and 
a  French  musician  named  Guasconi.  The  last- 
named  villain  was  selected  to  put  poison  in  the 
Duke's  food,  which  he  did ;  but  for  some  un- 
explained reason  the  venom  caused  nothing  worse 
than  a  temporary  inconvenience.  It  was  then 
determined  to  assassinate  Alfonso  at  a  masked 
ball  to  be  held  in  the  palace  of  one  of  the  nobles. 
But  the  conspirators,  finding  no  opportunity  during 
the  ball,  proposed  to  attack  the  Duke  as  he  returned 
home.  Again  they  were  foiled  ;  for  it  so  happened 
that  Alfonso  was  joined  at  the  door  by  a  number 
of  friendly  nobles,  who  obtained  permission  to 
escort  him  to  Castle  Vecchio.  Several  other  plans 
for  the  assassination  failed  in  some  similar  accidental 
way ;  for  of  this  conspiracy,  concocted  by  his 
brothers  and  hatched  in  his  own  palace,  Alfonso 
seems  to  have  had  no  inkling. 

Cardinal  Ippolito  in  Rome,  however,  suspecting 
something  sinister  from  the  unwonted  familiarity 
of  Ferrante  and  Giulio,  and  knowing  what  good 
reason  he  had  for  keeping  an  eye  on  the  movements 
of  the  latter,  set  his  spies  to  work ;  and,  having 
discovered  the  whole  plot,  instantly  revealed  it  to 
Alfonso.  This  was  in  July  1506.  Ferrante  and 
Count  Boschetti  were  promptly  arrested,  but  Giulio 
got  away  to  Mantua,  where  the  Marchioness 
Isabella  promised  to  protect  him  ;  Roberto  fled  to 
272 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

Carpi,  and  Guasconi  escaped  to  Rome.  When 
Ferrante  was  brought  into  his  brother's  presence 
he  threw  himself  on  his  knees,  confessing  his  guilt 
and  abjectly  imploring  forgiveness.  Alfonso  not 
only  sternly  thrust  him  away,  but  struck  out  one 
of  his  eyes  with  a  ceremonial  staff  that  he  carried 
in  his  hand.  Ferrante  was  then  confined  in  one  of 
the  dungeons  of  Castle  Vecchio  until  the  other 
conspirators  could  be  arrested,  in  order  that  all 
might  be  tried  together.  The  Marquis  of  Mantua 
at  first  declined  to  deliver  up  Giulio,  alleging  that 
the  Marchioness  had  promised  him  protection ; 
but  on  the  production  of  proofs  of  his  complicity 
in  the  plot  he  sent  the  prince  to  Ferrara. 

All  the  prisoners  pleaded  guilty,  and  threw  them- 
selves on  the  Duke's  mercy.  They  obtained  little 
from  the  stern  Alfonso.  Boschetti  and  three  other 
of  the  conspirators  were  executed  as  common  felons 
in  front  of  the  Palazzo  Ragione  ;  and  a  few  days 
afterwards  the  Duke  ordered  the  erection  of  a 
scaffold,  with  seats  around  to  accommodate  a  large 
number  of  spectators,  in  the  courtyard  of  Castle 
Vecchio,  for  the  more  impressive  punishment  of 
his  two  brothers.  He  issued  invitations  to  the 
nobles  and  principal  burghers  to  attend  on 
August  12,  and  when  they  arrived  they  found  the 
block  and  all  other  requisites  for  the  decapitation 
of  the  culprits  arranged  on  the  scaffold.  Ferrante 
and  Giulio  were  led  in,  accompanied  by  the  common 
executioner  with  his  axe.  But  when  Ferrante 
placed  his  head  upon  the  block,  the  Duke  rose 
from  his  seat  and  in  a  loud  voice  commanded 

s  273 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

the  proceedings  to  stop.  Infamous  as  was  the 
conduct  of  these  two  princes  in  having  sought  to  shed 
a  brother's  blood,  he  said,  and  amply  justified  as  he 
would  be  in  beheading  them  for  it,  yet  he  shrank 
from  having  the  slightest  taint  of  the  sin  of  Cain 
upon  his  conscience,  and  would  commute  their 
punishment  to  imprisonment  for  life.  They  were 
then  conducted  to  the  dungeons  beneath  the  castle 
in  which  he  and  Lucrezia  lived.  Ferrante  remained 
there  until  his  death  thirty-four  years  afterwards  ; 
Giulio  was  released  after  fifty-three  years  of  im- 
prisonment, when  he  had  become  an  old  man 
nearly  eighty  years  of  age. 

Giovanni  Guasconi  remained  at  liberty  some 
time  after  the  others  had  been  dealt  with.  He 
was  a  peculiarly  ungrateful  rascal,  for  he  had  been 
raised  from  mendicancy  to  a  position  of  affluence 
by  the  man  he  attempted  to  poison.  Some  years 
previously,  during  one  of  his  journeys  abroad, 
Alfonso  had  heard  the  fellow  singing  in  the  streets 
of  a  French  town,  and  being  struck  with  the  beauty 
of  his  voice  had  brought  him  to  Ferrara,  had  him 
carefully  trained,  and  introduced  him  into  Duke 
Ercole's  band  of  singers.  On  Alfonso's  accession 
to  the  throne  he  had  promoted  Guasconi  to  a 
position  of  trust  in  the  palace.  For  some  time 
after  his  escape  to  Rome  he  remained  in  hiding, 
but  eventually  he  obtained  an  appointment  in  the 
household  of  Cardinal  San  Giorgio.  Cardinal 
Ippolito  then  soon  discovered  him  and  informed 
his  brother  Alfonso,  who  immediately  wrote  to 
demand  the  surrender  of  the  culprit.  The  cardinal 
274 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

refused  to  deliver  up  any  servant  of  his  own,  what- 
ever crime  might  be  charged  against  him  ;  and 
after  several  fruitless  applications  Alfonso  appealed 
to  the  Pope.  Julius  ordered  the  fellow's  arrest, 
and,  on  the  production  of  primd  facie  evidence  of 
his  guilt,  sent  him  a  prisoner  to  Ferrara.  On  his 
arrival  there  it  was  all  his  guards  could  do  to 
prevent  his  being  torn  to  pieces  by  the  mob  ;  and 
on  the  following  day  he  was  hung  out  in  an  iron 
cage  from  one  of  the  balconies  of  the  castle  in 
order  that  the  people  might  give  vent  to  their 
feelings  by  imprecation  and  insult.  After  a  week 
of  this  treatment  the  miserable  wretch  took  refuge 
in  suicide,  being  found  by  his  gaoler  one  morning 
strangled  in  his  cell  with  the  strips  of  a  torn-up 
cloth. 

On  April  4,  1508,  there  were  great  rejoicings  in 
Ferrara,  for  on  that  day,  four  years  after  their 
marriage,  Lucrezia  gave  birth  to  a  son  and  heir 
to  the  throne.  The  child  was  named  after  his 
grandfather  Ercole,  and  in  due  time  succeeded  his 
father  as  Ercole  II.  Alfonso  was  away  at  the  time, 
but  he  hastened  home  on  the  receipt  of  the  welcome 
news,  although  he  was  obliged  to  leave  again  as 
soon  as  Lucrezia  was  convalescent.  The  good 
people  of  Ferrara  showed  their  delight  and  loyalty 
by  seizing  the  benches  in  the  law  courts,  the  schools, 
and  the  cathedral,  and  tearing  out  the  window- 
frames  of  other  public  buildings  to  make  fuel  for 
congratulatory  bonfires.  And  the  poet  Ercole 
Strozzi  celebrated  the  event  in  a  manner  scarcely 
less  extravagant.  In  an  elegy  on  the  recent  death 

275 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

of  Cesare  Borgia,  in  which  the  exploits  of  that 
cunning  and  unscrupulous  adventurer  were  likened 
to  the  famous  deeds  of  his  great  namesake,  he  had 
attempted  to  console  Lucrezia  by  assuring  her 
that  although,  by  the  decrees  of  inexorable  Fate, 
Cesare  had  to  die,  yet  Minerva  and  Venus  would 
not  permit  the  descendants  of  the  Trojans  to  be 
ruled  over  by  aliens,  and  had  obtained  a  promise 
from  Jupiter  in  Olympus  that  from  the  conjoined 
lines  of  Este  and  Borgia  (which  sprang  from  the 
heroes  of  Troy  and  Greece  respectively)  there 
should  arise  a  great  king  who  would  become  the 
saviour  of  Italy.  He  now  assured  her  that  her 
infant  was  the  promised  saviour,  who  was  destined 
to  rival  the  illustrious  deeds  of  his  uncle  Cesare  and 
his  grandfather  Alexander,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
famous  ancient  heroes  whose  names  they  worthily 
bore.  But  the  muse  had  not  revealed  to  the 
unfortunate  poet  his  own  approaching  fate ; 
although  in  one  of  his  elegies  some  expressions 
occur  which  indicate  that  he  may  have  had  some 
apprehensions  of  an  untimely  end. 

The  Strozzi  belonged  to  an  ancient  and  eminent 
family  of  Florence ;  but  Tito  Vespasiano  had 
accepted  a  military  appointment  under  Nicolo  III 
and  settled  in  Ferrara.  His  rank  and  talents  and 
learning  were  such  that  Ercole  employed  him  as 
ambassador  to  the  court  of  Rome,  and  afterwards 
made  him  head  of  the  twelve,  or  Chief  Justice 
of  Ferrara.  Notwithstanding  these  employments, 
however,  Tito  found  time  to  cultivate  literature, 
and  his  Latin  poetry  is  said  to  be  of  great  excellence. 
276 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

Shortly  before  his  death  he  had  made  some 
progress  with  an  epic  dealing  with  the  life  of  Duke 
Borso  d'Este  ;  and  he  left  ten  unfinished  books  of 
this  poem  to  his  son  Ercole,  who  undertook  to 
complete  the  work.  But  Fate  had  ordered  other- 
wise. In  May  1508  Ercole  Strozzi  was  married  to 
Barbara  Torelli,  the  young  and  beautiful  widow  of 
Ercole  Bentivoglio.  Thirteen  days  later,  on  the 
morning  of  June  6,  his  dead  body,  pierced  by 
twenty-two  dagger  wounds,  the  clothing  torn  to 
pieces,  and  locks  of  hair  pulled  out  by  the  roots, 
was  found  lying  in  the  streets  not  far  from  the 
Estense  Palace.  This  ghastly  tragedy  created  a 
profound  impression  in  Ferrara,  for  Ercole  Strozzi, 
then  only  twenty- seven  years  of  age,  had  suc- 
ceeded to  the  post  of  Chief  Justice  on  the  death 
of  his  father,  was  the  pride  of  the  whole  city  as 
a  poet,  and  a  favourite  of  the  Duchess  and  the 
court. 

The  mystery  of  this  murder  has  never  been  cleared 
up.  No  inquiry  was  instituted,  says  Paolo  Giovio, 
and  no  man  dared  to  name  the  murderer.  Some 
writers  have  charged  Lucrezia  with  the  crime, 
alleging  that  she  was  in  love  with  Ercole  Strozzi 
and  jealous  of  Barbara  Torelli.  But  this  pre- 
posterous theory  will  not  bear  a  moment's  ex- 
amination. Others,  with  more  plausibility,  have 
ascribed  it  to  the  jealousy  of  Alfonso.  The  poet 
had  undoubtedly  written  of  Lucrezia  in  terms  of 
the  highest  laudation  and  with  an  appearance  of 
unaffected  ardour.  He  broke  out  into  extravagant 
raptures  when  she  gave  him  a  rose ;  her  eyes  were 

277 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

like  the  sun  which  blinds  those  who  gaze  upon  it ; 
her  equal  was  not  to  be  found  on  earth ;  and  so 
forth.  But  there  is  really  no  evidence  that  his 
raptures  were  more  real  than  those  of  any  other 
poet  laureate.  Neither  is  there  very  much  in  the 
contention  that  Lucrezia  made  Ercole  many 
presents,  and  those  of  a  kind  implying  great 
intimacy  between  them — such  as  gold  brocade  or 
satin  for  the  making  of  splendid  vestments — for, 
in  the  first  place,  it  was  a  common  practice  to 
make  presents  of  rich  clothing  in  those  days  ;  and, 
in  the  second  place,  if  there  had  been  any  undue 
familiarity  implied  in  these  things  they  would 
never  have  been  openly  entered  in  her  household 
books  by  her  major-domo  as  "to  be  presented  by 
her  Highness  to  the  Magnifico  Messer  Ercole 
Strozzi."  Moreover,  even  if  Alfonso  had  been 
jealous  of  Strozzi's  admiration  for  Lucrezia  and 
of  her  making  presents  to  him,  it  is  highly  im- 
probable that  he  would  have  taken  no  notice  of 
it  while  the  poet  was  single,  and  yet  ordered  his 
death  immediately  after  he  had  married  a  beautiful 
woman  to  whom  it  was  well  known  that  he  had 
been  devoted  for  some  time.  Most  probably  the 
dastardly  deed  was  the  work  of  a  disappointed 
rival.  Ercole  Strozzi  had  courted  Barbara  Torelli 
for  a  year  or  more  ;  but  she  had  been  at  the  same 
time  solicited  with  equal  ardour  by  one  of  the 
Ferrarese  nobles  named  Alessandro  Pio.  Cardinal 
Ippolito,  who,  as  has  already  been  seen,  learned 
much  from  his  secret  spies  in  Ferrara,  in  a  letter 
to  a  friend  written  shortly  after  the  occurrence, 
278 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

named  Alessandro  Pio  as  the  instigator  of  the 
crime,  and  a  certain  Mesino  del  Formo  as  the 
actual  murderer.  Gregorovius  considers  it  proof 
of  Alfonso's  guilt  that  one  so  ready  to  punish  the 
conspirators  against  himself,  and  usually  so  stern 
an  upholder  of  the  law,  should  have  allowed  the 
matter  to  drop  so  quietly.  It  must  be  admitted 
that  this  is  a  difficulty  ;  although  it  may,  perhaps, 
be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  family  of  Alessandro 
Pio  was  just  about  to  become  allied  to  the  ducal 
family  by  the  marriage  of  his  brother  with  a  natural 
daughter  of  Cardinal  Ippolito. 

After  1508  the  chroniclers  of  Ferrara  have  com- 
paratively little  to  say  about  Lucrezia's  doings, 
her  personal  history  being  eclipsed  by  the  exciting 
political  affairs  of  the  state.  From  the  moment 
of  his  accession  Julius  II  had  bent  all  his  energies 
to  the  re-establishment  of  the  temporal  power  of 
the  Papacy.  The  House  of  Borgia  having  been 
politically  annihilated,  he  resolved  first  of  all  to 
possess  himself  of  those  smaller  independent  states 
which  had  returned  to  the  allegiance  of  their 
former  lords.  In  August  1506  he  set  out  at  the 
head  of  his  army  against  Perugia  ;  when  Gianpaolo 
Baglioni,  without  waiting  to  be  attacked,  advanced 
to  Orvietto  and  surrendered  his  territory.  On 
September  12  the  Pope  entered  Perugia,  and  having 
assumed  the  sovereignty,  which  he  immediately 
delegated  to  Cardinal  de'  Medici,  and  taken  Baglioni 
with  fifty  men-at-arms  into  his  service,  he  advanced 
with  his  army  to  Imola  and  called  upon  Giovanni 
Bentivoglio  to  surrender  Bologna.  Giovanni,  relying 

279 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

on  the  promised  assistance  of  France,  prepared 
to  resist ;  but  Louis  XII,  who  had  now  no  further 
use  for  the  ruler  of  Bologna,  whilst  he  stood  in 
need  of  the  favour  of  the  Pope,  coolly  ordered  the 
troops  he  had  despatched  from  Milan  for  Giovanni's 
assistance  to  co-operate  with  his  assailants  ;  where- 
upon Bentivoglio  fled,  and  on  November  11 
Julius  II  entered  Bologna  in  triumph. 

But  this  was  only  a  beginning.  Venice  hitherto 
had  gained  rather  than  lost  by  the  troubles  and 
confusions  of  the  rest  of  Italy,  and  was  now  at  the 
height  of  her  prosperity.  Her  growing  influence, 
however,  was  a  menace  to  more  than  one  of  the 
other  powers  ;  and  in  December  1508  the  League 
of  Cambray  was  formed  for  her  dismemberment. 
She  was  to  be  attacked  on  all  sides,  and  the  con- 
spirators were  to  divide  the  spoil.  The  Emperor 
Maximilian  was  to  have  Roveredo,  Verona,  Padua, 
Vicenza,  Trivigi,  Friuli  and  Aquileja.  The  King 
of  France  was  to  receive  the  cities  of  Brescia, 
Crema,  Bergamo  and  Cremona,  with  the  whole 
district  of  Ghiaradadda.  Ferdinand  of  Spain  was 
to  regain  possession  of  the  maritime  cities  of  Trani, 
Brindisi,  Gallipoli  and  Otranto,  on  the  coast  of 
Naples,  which  Venice  had  still  contrived  to  hold 
after  the  subjugation  of  Naples  by  Spain.  The 
Pope  was  to  receive  all  that  part  of  the  Romagna, 
including  the  cities  of  Ravenna,  Cervia,  Faenza, 
and  Rimini,  which  Venice  had  seized  after  the  fall 
of  Cesare  Borgia.  Several  other  smaller  potentates 
joined  the  League,  of  whom  the  most  important 
was  Alfonso  of  Ferrara,  whose  territories  were 
280 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

particularly  exposed  to  the  aggression  of  the 
Venetians. 

The  fortune  of  war  favoured  first  one  side  and 
then  the  other  ;  but  early  in  1510  the  Pope,  having 
recovered  Romagna,  which  was  all  he  wanted, 
secretly  deserted  his  allies,  took  the  ban  off  Venice, 
and  promised  the  Republic  his  future  support. 
Ferdinand  of  Spain,  who  had  recovered  his  mari- 
time cities  on  the  Adriatic,  was  already  lukewarm  ; 
and  the  futile  Emperor  Maximilian,  having  been 
driven  out  of  Padua,  had  returned  with  the  remains 
of  his  forces  to  Vienna.  Louis  XII  and  Alfonso  of 
Ferrara  were  therefore  left  to  carry  on  the  war 
against  Venice  alone.  Then  Alfonso  was  ordered 
by  the  Pope  to  desist  from  hostilities  ;  and  on  his 
refusal  to  do  so  he  was  excommunicated  together 
with  all  his  family,  and  his  dominions  declared  to 
be  confiscated  as  those  of  a  rebel  against  the  Holy 
See.  Alfonso  rightly  judged  this  to  be  merely  a 
pretext  to  enable  the  Pope  to  seize  the  State  of 
Ferrara  and  add  it  to  the  dominions  of  the  Church. 

The  Duke  of  Ferrara  had  succeeded  in  taking 
possession  of  the  districts  of  Este,  Polesella,  Mon- 
tagnano  and  Monfelice,  which  he  claimed  as  ancient 
heritages  of  his  family ;  wherefore  the  Venetians, 
who  were  specially  incensed  against  him  for  the 
active  part  he  had  taken  in  the  war,  determined 
to  punish  him  severely.  They  sent  a  fleet  of 
eighteen  galleys,  accompanied  by  a  considerable 
force  of  troops,  up  the  Po,  devastating  the  country 
on  either  side  as  they  went  along  and  filling  the 
inhabitants  of  Ferrara  with  terror.  Alfonso  and 

281 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

his  brother  Ippolito,  who  also  was  a  capable  man 
of  war,  did  not  wait  to  be  attacked,  but  proceeded 
down  the  stream  with  a  flotilla  of  galleys  to  meet 
the  enemy.  The  number  of  their  forces  was  much 
smaller  than  those  of  the  Venetians,  but  Alfonso 
was  far  superior  in  artillery  ;  and  in  a  sanguinary 
engagement  the  invaders  were  totally  routed,  losing 
all  their  ships  and  about  3000  men.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  he  was  attacked  again,  for  in  December 
1510,  in  the  middle  of  the  coldest  winter  ever 
known  in  Italy,  the  fiery  old  Pope,  after  besieging 
and  capturing  Mirandola,  marched  with  his  troops 
to  Ravenna  in  order  to  combine  with  his  ally  in 
an  assault  on  Ferrara.  But  Alfonso,  in  several 
engagements,  defeated  the  united  forces  of  the 
Pope  and  the  Venetians  to  their  considerable  loss. 

Louis  XII  and  the  Emperor  proposed  to  retaliate 
for  the  Pope's  desertion  of  them  by  calling  a 
Council  of  the  Church  to  depose  Julius  II,  where- 
upon the  Pope,  in  addition  to  convening  a  Council 
himself  in  the  Lateran,  in  December  1511  formed 
what  he  called  a  Holy  League,  by  which  Venice 
and  Spain  united  with  him  for  the  defence  of  the 
Church  and  to  expel  the  French  from  Italy.  The 
sanguinary  battle  of  Ravenna,  which  was  fought 
on  April  11,  1512,  practically  annihilated  the 
forces  of  the  Holy  allies,  and  was  due  in  great  part 
to  the  excellence  of  Alfonso's  artillery.  But  owing 
to  the  enormous  loss  of  men  on  the  winning  side, 
the  death  of  their  brilliant  young  leader,  Gaston 
de  Foix,  and  the  neglect  of  his  successor  to  follow 
up  the  advantage,  the  victory  was  equivalent  to  a 
282 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

crushing  defeat,  and  within  two  months  afterwards 
Julius  succeeded  in  driving  the  French  completely 
out  of  Italy. 

Alfonso,  now  left  to  shift  for  himself,  was 
naturally  anxious  for  a  reconciliation  with  the 
Pope.  It  had  so  happened  that  when  Fabrizzio 
Colonna  had  been  taken  prisoner  at  the  battle  of 
Ravenna  he  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Duke 
of  Ferrara,  who  had  treated  him  with  great  con- 
sideration, and,  after  the  expulsion  of  the  French 
from  Italy,  had  restored  the  captive  to  liberty. 
He  therefore  applied  to  the  man  he  had  thus 
befriended,  and  who  was  at  the  moment  in  Rome, 
to  make  his  peace  with  the  Pope.  Fabrizzio  under- 
took the  office,  and  reported  that  his  Holiness 
seemed  disposed  enough  to  accommodate  matters, 
but  had  suggested  that  it  would  be  more  appro- 
priate and  according  to  usage  for  the  Duke  to 
come  to  Rome  himself,  publicly  to  express  his 
regret  for  having  acted  as  a  rebellious  son  of  the 
Church.  Accordingly,  in  June  1512,  Alfonso  went 
to  Rome  ;  and  having  requested  pardon  for  having 
borne  arms  against  the  Holy  See,  and  promised  to 
behave  as  a  faithful  feudatory  in  future,  he  was 
received  by  the  Pope  with  apparent  friendliness. 
Julius  appointed  a  committee  of  six  cardinals  to 
confer  with  Alfonso  ;  but  the  Duke  was  aghast 
when  he  found  that  the  only  terms  on  which  he 
could  secure  a  pardon  and  the  removal  of  the  ban 
of  excommunication  were  that  he  should  give  up 
the  State  of  Ferrara,  accept  in  place  of  it  the  small 
town  of  Asti  in  Lombardy,  undertake  that  he  and 

283 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

all  his  family  would  reside  in  that  distant  town, 
and  guarantee  never  to  return  to  Ferrara,  which 
must  henceforth  be  considered  one  of  the  States  of 
the  Church. 

Alfonso  was  by  no  means  the  kind  of  man  to 
submit  tamely  to  any  such  conditions,  and  he 
resolutely  refused.  Moreover,  what  the  Pope's 
intentions  were  he  was  able  to  see  without  a  shadow 
of  a  doubt  when  intelligence  reached  him  that 
whilst  he  was  humbly  suing  for  pardon  at  the 
Papal  court  the  Pope's  troops,  with  the  Pope's 
nephew  at  their  head,  had  entered  his  territories 
and  were  threatening  Ferrara.  He  instantly  made 
hurried  preparations  to  return,  but  the  Pope  for- 
bade him  to  leave  Rome.  Then  occurred  an  in- 
stance of  grateful  return  for  kindness  received 
which  it  is  peculiarly  refreshing  to  come  across 
amidst  such  a  continuous  record  of  unblushing 
perfidy  and  treachery.  One  morning  about  day- 
break Fabrizzio  Colonna,  with  a  small  band  of  his 
trusted  adherents  mounted  and  armed,  endeavoured 
to  smuggle  Alfonso,  whom  they  had  carefully 
disguised,  secretly  out  of  the  city.  But  on  their 
arrival  at  the  gate  of  St.  John  Lateran  the  officer 
of  the  guard  refused  to  let  them  pass.  It  was  too 
late  to  retreat,  so  Fabrizzio,  trusting  to  the  speed 
of  his  horses,  broke  through  the  guard  and  con- 
ducted the  Duke  in  safety  to  the  fortress  of  his 
family  at  Marino.  Thence,  in  company  with  young 
Prospero  Colonna,  Alfonso  set  out  homewards, 
travelling  by  devious  routes,  and  with  various 
changes  of  disguise,  in  order  to  elude  the  Pope's 
284 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

emissaries  who  were  sent  out  after  them  in  every 
direction.  Sometimes  they  passed  for  two  private 
soldiers  going  to  join  their  regiment,  sometimes  for 
two  huntsmen,  sometimes  for  two  friars  on  pilgrim- 
age to  a  shrine,  and  on  one  occasion  Alfonso  passed 
for  Prospero's  cook.  At  length,  after  much  wander- 
ing in  this  fashion,  and  the  endurance  of  great 
hardships,  the  Duke  arrived  safely  in  his  own  city 
of  Ferrara. 

Soon  after  his  return  he  attempted  to  appease 
the  angry  Pope  by  a  submissive  embassy  ;  and  as 
none  of  his  nobles  were  very  much  disposed  to 
undertake  so  dangerous  an  office,  he  fixed  upon 
his  brother  Ippolito's  retainer,  the  celebrated  poet 
Ariosto,  for  the  purpose.  On  Ariosto's  arrival  in 
Rome  he  found  that  the  Pope  was  recreating  him- 
self for  a  short  time  at  Ostia,  and  accordingly 
followed  him  thither.  But  no  sooner  had  the  poet 
been  admitted  to  the  Pontiff's  presence  and  his 
errand  explained  than  the  irascible  Julius  com- 
manded him  to  leave  the  place  instantly  or  he 
should  be  thrown  into  the  sea.  Fortunately  for 
the  Este  dynasty  of  Ferrara,  Julius  II  died  in  the 
following  February  and  was  succeeded  by  Leo  X. 

During  Alfonso's  prolonged  absence  from  Ferrara 
Lucrezia  had  proved  herself  a  capable  regent, 
acceptable  to  noble  as  well  as  to  burgher,  and 
benevolent  to  the  poor.  Her  second  son,  who 
was  christened  Ippolito  after  his  uncle,  was  born 
in  1509,  shortly  before  the  war  broke  out.  In 
July  1510  unhappy  memories  of  her  earlier  life 
must  have  been  recalled  by  the  death  of  her 

285 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

divorced  husband,  Giovanni  Sforza.  Giovanni,  like 
most  of  his  illustrious  family,  was  a  man  of  much 
culture,  and  spent  a  good  deal  of  his  time  alone,  in 
his  castle  of  Gradara,  studying  divine  philosophy. 
He  had  married  again  in  1504,  and  he  left  an 
infant  son  to  succeed  him,  thus  incidentally  giving 
the  lie  to  the  alleged  reason  for  his  divorce  from 
Lucrezia.  But  the  child  died  in  1512,  and  Julius  II 
seized  the  opportunity  to  transfer  the  lordship  of 
Pesaro  to  his  nephew,  Francesco  Maria  Rovere. 
In  the  same  year  died  Rodrigo,  Lucrezia's  son  by 
her  second  husband,  the  murdered  Duke  of  Bisceglia. 
As  already  mentioned,  this  boy  had  been  living  for 
some  years  with  his  aunt,  Isabella  of  Aragon,  at 
Bari,  not  far  from  his  hereditary  duchy  of  Bisceglia. 
He  was  evidently  being  brought  up  and  educated 
with  the  "  Infans  Romanus,"  Giovanni  Borgia, 
who  was  about  a  year  older  than  himself,  for 
Lucrezia's  book  of  household  expenditure  shows 
that  in  March  1505  she  sent  a  present  of  brocade 
and  damask  to  Bari  for  her  son  Rodrigo,  and  another 
entry  in  April  1508  records  an  expenditure  for  both 
of  them,  who  were  then  at  Bari  together  under  the 
care  of  the  same  tutor.  Why  Lucrezia  left  her 
three-year-old  son  behind  her  in  Rome  and  never 
set  eyes  on  him  again  is  a  mystery  which  has  never 
been  cleared  up,  and  is  rendered  all  the  more 
inexplicable  by  the  fact  that,  on  one  occasion  at 
least,  in  1506,  she  had  his  companion  Giovanni 
brought  to  her  at  Ferrara. 

Although  the  Duke  had  saved  his  state,  the 
prolonged  war  had  exhausted  his  treasury,  and 
286 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

plunged  the  greater  part  of  his  subjects  into  great 
misery  and  distress.  As  it  became  necessary  for 
Alfonso  to  appeal  to  his  nobles  to  make  some 
sacrifice  to  mitigate  the  miseries  of  the  people,  he 
and  Lucrezia  set  them  an  admirable  example.  He 
sold  off  the  silver  plate  and  rich  furniture  of  his 
palace,  and  she  pawned  her  jewels.  An  inventory 
of  these,  made  in  January  1516,  when  presumably 
they  were  redeemed  and  returned  to  the  custody 
of  her  chamberlain,  enumerates  three  hundred 
articles,  and  shows  Lucrezia  to  have  possessed  a 
collection  of  ornaments  that  for  beauty  and  costli- 
ness were  probably  unequalled  by  that  of  any  other 
princess  in  Europe. 

There  were  many  charitable  institutions  in 
Ferrara,  wherein  both  the  Duke  and  Duchess  took 
a  laudable  interest.  There  were  almshouses  for 
the  aged  and  infirm,  workhouses  for  the  able- 
bodied  in  temporary  distress,  a  foundling  hospital, 
and  an  asylum  for  orphans.  Many  of  these  chari- 
ties were  personally  superintended  by  Lucrezia 
and  her  husband.  One  institution  in  which  she 
took  a  special  interest  was  an  asylum  and  school 
for  the  bashful  poor,  the  object  of  which  was  to 
give  assistance  to  those  who  had  once  been  well- 
to-do  but  through  unavoidable  misfortune  had 
fallen  into  decay.  Alfonso  revived  and  enforced 
a  law  of  his  father  Ercole  which  compelled  every 
person  who  made  a  will  to  bequeath  the  sum  of 
five  soldi  to  this  Hospital  of  St.  Ann,  to  provide  for 
the  poor  whom  it  sheltered  and  also  to  maintain 
the  fabric  of  the  building.  In  1505  he  ordered 

287 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

collections  to  be  made  throughout  the  whole  of 
his  duchy  for  the  building  of  a  special  hospital 
for  those  suffering  from  contagious  diseases,  in 
order  to  separate  these  from  the  patients  in  other 
hospitals.  But  indiscriminate  charity  was  dis- 
couraged. Begging  in  the  streets  was  prohibited  ; 
for  the  first  offence  the  mendicant  was  imprisoned, 
for  the  second  he  was  flogged  also,  whilst  any 
person  detected  in  the  act  of  giving  money  to  a 
mendicant  was  fined  two  scudi.  A  Monte  de  Pieta 
was  founded  in  Ferrara  for  lending  small  sums  of 
money  to  the  poor,  on  pledge  but  without  interest 
for  six  months  ;  after  that  a  small  interest  was 
charged  if  the  pledge  were  renewed.  Previous  to 
this  the  Jews  of  Ferrara  had  practised  extortionate 
usury,  not  only  charging  60  per  cent,  per  annum 
to  the  rich  and  100  per  cent,  for  a  single  month  to 
the  poor,  but  obliging  the  borrowers  to  take  out 
much  of  their  loans,  not  in  cash,  but  in  goods,  very 
often  goods  of  no  use  to  them  or  to  anybody  else. 

Several  more  children  were  added  to  the  family 
of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  :  in  April  1514  a  son, 
Alessandro  ;  in  July  1515  a  daughter,  Leonora  ; 
and  in  November  1516  a  fourth  son,  Francesco. 
Whatever  may  be  said  about  her  apparently  callous 
indifference  towards  her  son  by  the  Duke  of 
Bisceglia,  she  appears  to  have  been  a  careful  and 
attentive  mother  to  her  children  by  Alfonso  of 
Ferrara.  In  the  year  1516  she  had  some  corre- 
spondence with  the  poet  Gian-Giorgio  Trissino, 
who  was  then  at  the  court  of  Leo  X,  and  it  has 
been  suggested  that  he  was  another  of  her  poetic 
288 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

admirers  for  whom  she  cherished  a  more  than 
poetic  attachment.  Trissino  is  notable  as  the 
writer  of  Sofonisba,  the  first  regular  tragedy  to 
make  its  appearance  after  the  revival  of  letters, 
and  also  as  the  introducer  of  versi  sciolti,  or  blank 
verse,  into  Italian  literature.  He  was  also  of 
high  repute  in  his  own  time  as  a  man  of  learning  ; 
and  the  object  of  Lucrezia's  correspondence  with 
him  seems  to  have  been  the  sufficiently  innocent 
one  of  obtaining  this  learned  man's  advice  respect- 
ing an  appropriate  tutor  for  her  eldest  son,  Ercole. 
Five  of  her  letters  to  Trissino,  written  in  a  tone  of 
friendly  familiarity,  may  be  found  in  the  appendix 
to  Roscoe's  "  Life  and  Pontificate  of  Leo  X." 
But  those  who  scent  scandal  in  this  affair  rely  more 
on  a  letter,  of  unascertained  date,  which  Trissino 
wrote  to  Lucrezia's  undoubtedly  ardent  lover  Bembo. 
Lucrezia  had  presented  Trissino  with  a  medallion 
portrait  of  herself,  which  the  admiring  Bembo 
coveted  ;  and  on  the  other's  refusal  to  part  with 
it  had  exhibited  considerable  annoyance.  Trissino 
replied  saying  that  he  could  not  conciliate  Bembo's 
regard  in  this  way,  though  he  would  willingly  pur- 
chase it  with  anything  else  of  much  higher  value ; 
and  he  thought  his  friend's  usually  mild  and  for- 
bearing temper  had  been  unreasonably  ruffled. 
For,  he  says,  "  if  the  resemblance  of  this  medallion 
to  the  lady  you  admire  justifies  your  wish  to 
possess  it,  why  should  it  not  for  the  same  reason 
justify  my  wish  to  retain  it  ?  "  He  adds  that 
"  two  strong  ties,  affection  and  fidelity,  forbid 
my  making  you  the  gift  you  request  "  ;  and  he 

M  W  v 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

concludes  with  the  diplomatic  politeness  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  time,  that  the  regret  which  he  feels 
at  not  being  able  to  comply  with  the  request  is 
much  greater  than  any  disappointment  his  corre- 
spondent can  feel  in  having  made  it  in  vain.  If 
there  were  no  stronger  evidence  than  this  against 
Lucrezia  in  respect  of  the  other  charges  made 
against  her,  the  modern  whitewashes  of  her 
memory  would  have  had  an  easy  task. 

On  November  26,  1518,  Lucrezia's  mother  died 
in  Rome  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven.  After  the 
election  of  Pius  III  she  had  returned  to  Rome  from 
Nepi  in  company  with  her  son  Cesare.  As  her 
title  to  a  good  deal  of  her  property  was  by  no 
means  unquestionable,  she  had  resorted  to  various 
artful  expedients  for  its  preservation.  In  December 
1503,  after  the  election  of  Julius  II,  and  whilst 
Cesare  was  a  prisoner  in  the  Torre  Borgia,  she 
presented  her  house  on  the  Piazza  di  Merlo  by  deed 
of  gift  to  the  Church  of  S.  Maria  del  Popolo, 
reserving  the  use  of  it  during  her  lifetime.  She 
sold  several  other  houses,  and  afterwards  revoked 
the  bargain,  on  the  ground  that  it  had  only  been 
made  from  fear  of  confiscation.  But  she  received 
the  protection  of  a  number  of  powerful  friends, 
especially  of  the  Farnese  and  the  Cesarini,  and  of 
those  cardinals  who  were  relatives  or  creatures  of 
Alexander  VI,  so  that  she  was  able  to  remain  in 
Rome  unmolested  for  the  remainder  of  her  life. 
She  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  her  children  ; 
and  in  1515  we  hear  of  her  ten-year-old  grandchild, 
son  of  Giuffre,  Prince  of  Squillace,  living  with  her 
290 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

in  her  house  in  Rome  for  a  time.     She  was  described 
as   "la  magnifica  e  nobile  Madonna  Vanozza  "  ; 
and,  as  mother  of  the  reigning  Duchess  of  Ferrara, 
was  regarded  as  a  lady  of  high  position,   whose 
society  many  thought  it  worth  while  to  cultivate. 
Several  of  her  letters  to  Lucrezia  have  been  pre- 
served, and  they  exhibit  her  as  a  shrewd  old  woman 
of  the  world,  of  no  very  sweet  temper,  and  with  a 
strong  determination  to  stand  up  for  her  rights 
In  one  she  claims  some  of  the  jewels  in  her  daughter's 
dowry,  which  she  alleges  had  been  given  in  mistake. 
In  another,   dated  February  1515,   she  prefers  a 
number    of    complaints    against    a   certain    Paolo 
Pagnano,   who,   she  says,  is  perpetually  annoying 
her  with  claims  on  some  of  her  property,  as  though 
she  were  the  vilest  person  in  the  world  and  unable 
to  find  a  friend  to  stand  by  her.     Wherefore  she 
requests  her  daughter  and  son-in-law  to  send  some 
discreet  person  to  the  illustrious  Duke  of  Milan  to 
circumvent   the   machinations   of   the   said   Paolo 
Pagnano.  She  concludes  her  letter  by  recommending 
herself  to   her  Excellency  of  Ferrara,  and   to  the 
illustrious  Duke,   and  to  the  children,   for  all  of 
whom  she  prays  continually,  and  she  signs  herself 
"  Your    happy    and    unhappy    mother,    Vanozza 
Borgia  de  Catenai."     In  another  communication, 
dated  December   19   of  the  same  year,   Vanozza 
showed  that  she  had  not  associated  with  the  wily 
Rodrigo    Borgia    without    acquiring    some    of    his 
finesse.     The  letter,   which  had  been  written   by 
some   one   else   for   her   to   sign,    begs   Lucrezia's 
influence   on   behalf   of  a  certain   Gianbatista  of 

291 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Aquila,  who  had  claims  on  some  benefices  in  the 
diocese  of  Capua ;  but  after  her  signature  she 
managed  to  insert  a  hurried  postscript  in  which 
she  told  Lucrezia  she  had  been  obliged  to  sign  the 
letter,  but  wished  her  daughter  to  do  no  more  than 
she  pleased  in  the  matter. 

For  some  years  past  Madonna  Vanozza  had  been 
ostentatiously  devout.  She  associated  much  with 
priests  and  monks,  and  Paolo  Giovio,  who  became 
acquainted  with  her  in  her  later  days,  describes 
her  as  a  worthy  and  upright  woman.  She  benefited 
a  number  of  religious  foundations  in  Rome,  in- 
cluding the  Company  of  the  Gonfalone  ad  Sancta 
Sanctorum,  whose  records  show  that  she  gave  them 
her  jewels,  which  were  of  considerable  value,  that 
she  paid  a  famous  silversmith  two  thousand  ducats 
to  adorn  their  abode  with  a  magnificent  work  of 
art,  and  that  she  left  them  enough  property  by 
will  to  bring  in  annually  four  hundred  ducats  for 
feeding  the  poor  and  the  sick.  Wherefore,  to  show 
their  gratitude  to  this  "  noble  and  honourable 
lady,"  the  holy  brotherhood  decided  to  celebrate 
her  obsequies  with  great  pomp,  to  honour  her 
memory  with  a  splendid  monument,  and  to  have 
Mass  said  for  the  repose  of  her  soul  every  year  on 
the  anniversary  of  her  death  in  the  Church  of 
S.  Maria  del  Popolo.  According  to  the  chronicler 
Sanuto,  her  funeral  was  attended  by  the  Pope's 
chamberlain  and  was  almost  as  magnificent  as 
that  of  a  cardinal.  Hieronymus  Picus,  her  execu- 
tor, placed  an  inscription  on  her  tomb  setting  forth 
that  she  was  the  mother  of  Cesare  Duke  of 
292 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

Valentino,  of  Giovanni  Duke  of  Gandia,  of  Giuffre 
Prince  of  Squillace,  and  of  Lucrezia  Duchess  of 
Ferrara,  and  that  she  was  conspicuous  for  her 
uprightness,  her  piety,  her  discretion,  and  her 
intelligence.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years, 
says  Gregorovius,  the  priests  of  S.  Maria  del 
Popolo  sang  masses  for  the  repose  of  her  soul. 
Why  they  do  not  continue  doing  so  to-day,  or 
how  and  when  her  tombstone  disappeared  from 
the  church  it  is  vain  to  ask. 

In  March  of  the  following  year  Lucrezia  heard 
of  the  death  of  the  Marquis  of  Mantua,  and  wrote 
to  her  bereaved  sister-in-law  that  it  had  so  grieved 
her  that  she  was  more  in  want  of  consolation 
herself  than  able  to  offer  any.  Yet  she  would 
have  gone  to  Mantua,  she  said,  had  not  the  state 
of  her  health  prohibited  travelling.  She  was  in  an 
advanced  state  of  pregnancy,  and,  after  two 
months  of  great  suffering,  on  June  14  was  delivered 
of  a  stillborn  child.  Eight  days  later  she  dictated 
a  letter  to  Pope  Leo,  telling  him  she  knew  she 
could  not  recover,  and  asking  his  blessing  on  her 
soul.  She  died  on  June  24,  1519.  Her  husband, 
who  had  been  in  constant  attendance  on  her, 
immediately  wrote  to  his  nephew,  the  new  Marquis 
of  Mantua,  to  acquaint  him  with  the  melancholy 
news.  He  was  a  rough  soldier,  but  he  declared  he 
could  not  write  without  the  tears  coming  into  his 
eyes  to  find  himself  deprived  of  one  who  had  been 
so  excellent  a  companion,  of  such  an  exemplary 
life,  and  united  to  him  in  the  bonds  of  so  tender  a 
love.  On  the  28th  she  was  buried,  after  a  simple 

293 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

service,  in  the  convent  of  the  Sisters  of  Corpus 
Christi,  beside  the  coffin  of  Alfonso's  mother.  The 
grave  has  long  since  disappeared  ;  and,  strange  to 
say,  of  the  last  resting-places  of  Pope  Alexander,  of 
Cesare,  and  of  Lucrezia  Borgia  not  a  trace  now 
remains. 

For  seventeen  years  Lucrezia  had  been  at  the 
head  of  a  court  famous  throughout  Italy  for  its 
intellectual  culture  and  the  eminence  of  its  men  of 
letters  ;  but  her  own  acquirements  in  this  direction 
have  undoubtedly  been  exaggerated.  Gregorovius 
has  furnished  us  with  a  catalogue  of  the  books  which 
she  brought  to  Ferrara  from  Rome,  seventeen  in 
number,  beautifully  bound  in  purple  velvet  with 
mountings  of  silver  and  gold,  from  which  it  is 
evident  that,  down  to  that  date  at  any  rate,  her 
studies  had  not  been  very  profound.  Strict  observ- 
ance of  the  outward  forms  of  religion  was  the  first 
and  most  important  thing  in  the  education  of 
Italian  ladies  ;  and  of  this  teaching  the  Pope's 
daughter  had  evidently  had  her  full  share.  Her 
secular  culture  was  probably,  mutatis  mutandis, 
much  on  a  par  with  that  of  a  fine  lady  of  our  own 
day.  She  played  on  the  lute  instead  of  the  piano, 
read  poems  instead  of  prose  novels,  and  in  place 
of  the  modern  smattering  of  French  and  Italian 
had  a  corresponding  superficial  acquaintance  with 
Latin  and  Greek.  She  had  some  skill  in  drawing, 
and  was  exceptionally  expert  at  fine  embroidery 
in  silk  and  gold.  She  must  have  been  able  to  read 
some  Latin,  or  Alexander  VI  could  never  have  left 
her  to  act  as  regent  in  the  Vatican,  as  he  did  more 
294 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

than  once  ;  but  that  her  acquaintance  with  it  was 
very  slight  may  be  presumed  from  the  fact  that 
on  one  occasion  her  father  ordered  a  conference  at 
which  she  was  present  to  be  conducted  in  the 
vulgar  tongue  because  she  was  not  mistress  of  the 
other.  With  Spanish  and  Italian  she  was  equally 
familiar,  for  one  was  the  habitual  language  of  her 
father  and  brothers,  the  other  that  of  the  land  of 
her  birth.  But  when  the  biographer  of  the 
Chevalier  Bayard  says  that  she  not  only  spoke 
Spanish,  Italian,  French,  Greek  and  Latin,  but 
also  composed  poetry  in  all  these  tongues,  he  must 
either  have  been  misinformed  or  else  was  indulging 
in  courtly  exaggeration.  Italian  versification,  and 
especially  the  composition  of  sonnets,  was  a  common 
enough  accomplishment  of  both  sexes  in  her  day ; 
but  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  was  practised  by 
Lucrezia.  On  the  contrary,  it  may  be  taken  for 
certain  that  had  she  written  verses  of  even  the 
most  mediocre  kind  they  would  have  been  highly 
eulogised  by  Bembo,  or  the  Strozzi,  or  Aldus 
Manutius ;  yet  not  one  of  these  admirers  and 
flatterers  ever  hints  at  such  an  accomplishment. 
Bembo  does  indeed  give  her  a  general  intellectual 
testimonial ;  for,  in  dedicating  to  her  his  Asolani, 
a  philosophical  dialogue  on  love,  he  addresses  her 
as  "  a  Princess  more  desirous  of  ornamenting  her 
mind  with  excellent  endowments  than  her  person 
with  the  decorations  of  dress."  Considering 
Lucrezia's  reputation  as  the  most  magnificently 
dressed  woman  in  Italy,  this  might  be  considered 
pretty  high  praise,  were  we  not  compelled  to  make 

295 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

a  heavy  discount  for  an  amorous  admirer's  flattery 
of  a  patronising  Duchess. 

Lucrezia's  moral  character  is  still  a  problem. 
Although  the  researches  of  modern  historians  have 
done  something  to  modify  the  previously  received 
estimate  of  her,  the  Roman  period  of  her  career 
remains  veiled  in  great  obscurity.  That  murderous 
maenad  who  is  the  heroine  of  Victor  Hugo's  play 
and  Donizetti's  opera  no  more  resembles  the  histori- 
cal personage  whose  name  she  bears  than  the 
ridiculous  figures  carried  about  our  streets  on  the 
fifth  of  November  resemble  the  real  Guy  Fawkes. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  no  warrant  whatever  for 
the  bold  assertion  of  a  recent  Roman  Catholic 
apologist  that  Lucrezia  Borgia  is  now  proved  to 
have  been  a  lady  of  lovely  and  unblemished 
character.  The  traditional  account  of  her,  which 
had  been  universally  accepted  ever  since  the 
publication  of  Guicciardini's  History  in  1561,  was 
for  the  first  time  questioned  by  William  Roscoe, 
who,  in  1805,  appended  a  dissertation  on  her 
character  to  his  History  of  Leo  X.  In  substance 
his  plea  amounts  to  no  more  than  the  contention 
that,  as  the  Ethiopian  cannot  change  his  skin  nor 
the  leopard  his  spots,  it  is  impossible  to  credit  such 
infamous  charges  as  were  made  against  Lucrezia 
concerning  the  earlier  half  of  her  life  in  face  of  the 
abundant  and  authentic  testimony  we  possess  that 
her  conduct  during  the  latter  half  of  her  life  was 
not  merely  without  reproach  but  in  the  highest 
degree  commendable  and  exemplary. 

This  chivalrous  breaking  of  a  lance  in  her  favour 
296 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

by  the  amiable  Roscoe  seems  to  have  inspired  a 
more  extended  vindication  from  the  pen  of  William 
Gilbert,  father  of  the  well-known  playwright,  which 
appeared  in  the  form  of  a  biography  in  two  volumes 
in  1869.  Gilbert  did  not  carry  the  matter  much 
further ;  for  the  bulk  of  his  book  is  devoted  to  a 
detailed  account  of  Lucrezia's  life  in  Ferrara.  He 
quotes  courtly  poets  and  chroniclers  as  evidence  of 
the  estimation  in  which  she  was  generally  held,  and 
cites  her  own  letters,  of  which  over  three  hundred 
are  extant,  to  show  that  she  was  sedulous  in  her 
domestic  duties,  careful  and  discreet  in  matters  of 
State,  benevolent  to  the  poor,  and  of  a  pious 
disposition  approaching  to  bigotry.  He  does  not 
profess  to  throw  any  new  light  on  the  period  of 
her  life  in  Rome  ;  but,  while  admitting  the  un- 
likelihood that  she  could  have  resided  for  twenty 
years  in  the  pernicious  atmosphere  of  her  father's 
court  without  being  contaminated  by  it,  merely 
declares  that  her  detractors  were  too  unscrupulous 
in  their  accusations. 

Five  years  later,  the  learned  German  historian 
Ferdinand  Gregorovius,  who  had  devoted  special 
attention  to  the  political  history  of  Alexander  VI 
and  Cesare  Borgia  in  his  "  History  of  the  City  of 
Rome  during  the  Middle  Ages,"  produced  an 
elaborate  monograph  on  Lucrezia,  based  on  an 
abundance  of  new  material  which  he  had  dis- 
covered in  the  archives  of  the  notary  of  the 
Capitol  in  Rome  and  elsewhere.  He  claims  to 
have  replaced  romance  by  authentic  history.  But 
his  verdict,  which  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  though 

297 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

it  were  a  complete  exculpation  of  Lucrezia  from 
all  the  charges  ever  made  against  her,  is  in  reality 
nothing  of  the  kind.  He  absolves  her  from  the 
absurd  charge  of  complicity  in  the  murder  of  her 
second  husband,  Alfonso  of  Bisceglia.  He  dis- 
credits the  accusations  of  incest,  as  having  no  other 
foundation  whatever  than  the  divorced  Giovanni 
Sforza's  frantic  and  malignant  efforts  to  retaliate 
on  the  family  which  had  discarded  and  disinherited 
him.  But  he  confesses  himself  unable  to  believe 
that  Lucrezia  could  have  kept  herself  spotless 
amidst  the  shocking  depravity  which  surrounded 
her  in  Rome  ;  and  he  inclines  to  credit  the  Venetian 
ambassador's  report  that  twelve  months  after  her 
separation  from  her  first  husband  she  had  given 
birth  to  an  illegitimate  child. 

The  charges  of  Lucrezia's  accusers  relate  almost 
exclusively  to  the  earlier  half  of  her  life  in  Rome  ; 
the  eulogies  of  her  contemporary  admirers  relate 
exclusively  to  the  latter  half  of  her  life  in  Ferrara. 
The  former  cannot  be  refuted,  though  they  may 
be  disbelieved  ;  and  their  evidence  must  be  ad- 
mitted to  be  of  considerable  weight.  Not  only 
satirical  poets  like  Sannazzaro  and  Giovanni 
Botano,  but  Guicciardini,  Machiavelli,  and  most 
of  the  principal  statesmen  and  historians  of  the 
time  were  firmly  convinced  of  some  of  the  darkest 
charges  made  against  her.  Her  modern  apologists 
are  scarcely  justified  in  ruling  the  evidence  of  these 
men  out  of  court  merely  because  they  were  not 
actual  eye-witnesses  of  the  facts  to  which  they 
testify.  To  say  nothing  of  incest,  how  many 
298 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

murders  have  ever  been  proved  by  the  evidence 
of  actual  eye-witnesses  of  the  crime  ?  Guicciardini 
and  Machiavelli  were  actors  in  the  drama  they 
describe.  They  were  in  constant  personal  contact 
with  most  of  the  other  actors.  They  were  not 
scandal-mongers,  but  it  was  their  business  to 
become  acquainted  with  and  to  report  the  foibles 
and  vices  as  well  as  the  virtues  of  those  with  whom 
and  concerning  whom  they  were  negotiating.  They 
had  access  to  all  the  best  contemporary  sources  of 
information  ;  and  they  were  familiar  as  the  most 
profound  historical  student  can  never  become 
familiar,  with  all  the  characters  and  all  the  con- 
flicting thoughts  and  feelings  and  passions  of  the 
people  of  their  time. 

Her  contemporary  eulogists,  who  refer  to  the 
later  period  of  her  life  in  Ferrara  only,  were  mostly 
enamoured  poets  or  court  dependents.  Roscoe  and 
Gilbert  and  Gregorovius  all  urge  that  Ariosto,  the 
Strozzi  and  others  would  never  have  written  as 
they  did  about  Lucrezia  if  they  had  believed  her 
guilty  of  such  crimes  as  had  been  ascribed  to  her 
by  Sannazzaro.  But  Ariosto,  who  lived  nearly  all 
his  life  in  Ferrara,  and  who  was  a  paid  servant  of 
Lucrezia's  brother-in-law  Ippolito,  not  only  manu- 
factured a  fictitious  pedigree  for  the  Este  family  in 
his  Orlando  Furioso,  but  also  flattered  the  living 
members  of  the  family  as  unblushingly  as  the  most 
venal  of  court  rhymers.  Ercole  Strozzi  called 
Lucrezia  a  Juno  in  good  works,  a  Pallas  in  decorum, 
and  a  Venus  in  beauty.  But  it  must  be  remembered 
that  he  also  lavished  the  most  fulsome  eulogies  on 

299 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

her  bloodthirsty  brother  Cesare  and  on  her  infamous 
father  Alexander  VI.      To  urge  that  even  court 
flatterers  are  bound  to  keep  within  the  limits  of 
probability  because   to    ascribe  to  a  prince  such 
virtues  as  he  notoriously  lacked  would  only  expose 
both  prince  and  flatterer  to  ridicule,  is  an  argument 
that  cuts  both  ways.     For  it  may  be  urged  with 
equal  cogency  that  to  accuse  a  prince  of  such  vices 
as  were  notoriously  incompatible  with  his  character 
would  also  have  been  a  futile  proceeding,  and  the 
obvious   incredibility   of   the   charges   would   only 
have   recoiled   upon   the   traducer.     To   disbelieve 
the  story  of  a  hideous  crime  because  one's  moral 
sense  revolts  against  it,  may  be  evidence  of  the 
biographer's  amiable  disposition,  but  is  no  exculpa- 
tion of  the  accused  person  ;    and  one's  moral  sense 
revolts  with  no  less  strength  against  crimes  imputed, 
for  example,  to  the  Cenci  and  the  Malatesta,  which 
yet   have   to   be    admitted   for   true.     And    it    is 
scarcely  more  convincing  to  urge  that  the  crimes 
charged    against   Lucrezia   could   not    possibly   be 
true    of    a    woman    with    the    "  maidenly,    almost 
childish  face  "  depicted  on  the  well-known  medal- 
lion which  is  the  only  authentic  portrait  we  have 
of  her.     Unfortunately,  both  history  and  common 
observation    show    only    too    conclusively    that    a 
charming  face  and  fascinating  manner  are  by  no 
means    infallible    indications    of    a    beautiful    and 
virtuous  character. 

That  the  record  of  Lucrezia' s  later  life  in 
Ferrara  refutes  the  scandalous  stories  of  her  earlier 
life  in  Rome  seems  to  be  the  main  contention  alike 
300 


LUCREZIA  BORGIA 

of  Roscoe  and  Gilbert  and  Gregorovius.  But  on 
this  point  the  last  of  these,  at  least,  is  somewhat 
contradictory  ;  for  after  quoting  Paolo  Giovio  to 
the  effect  that  she  put  aside  the  pomps  and 
vanities  of  the  world  to  which  she  had  been  accus- 
tomed and  devoted  herself  entirely  to  pious  works, 
he  discounts  the  praise  by  remarking  that  bigotry 
is  often  only  the  last  form  assumed  by  feminine 
vanity,  and  by  pointing  out  that  her  own  mother, 
Vanozza,  became  a  religious  fanatic,  fancying  that 
she  expiated  her  former  sins  and  purchased  a  place 
in  Heaven  with  silver  and  gold  ;  that  her  licentious 
sister-in-law,  Sancia,  ended  her  scandalous  life  in 
a  convent ;  and  that,  in  all  probability,  the 
adulterous  Giulia  Farnese  herself  passed  the  closing 
years  of  her  shameless  existence  in  similar  pious 
fashion. 

Absolving  Lucrezia  from  all  charge  of  complicity 
in  any  of  the  murders  perpetrated  by  her  relations, 
and  putting  aside  as  unproven  the  charge  of  incest, 
all  the  available  evidence  goes  to  show  that  up  to 
the  time  of  her  marriage  to  Alfonso  d'Este,  with  all 
her  joyous  vivacity  and  singular  charm,  she  was 
yet  a  mere  vain,  pleasure-loving,  callous,  character- 
less girl,  content  to  be  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  her 
unscrupulous  father  and  his  terrible  son.  But  her 
departure  from  that  "  sink  of  iniquity,"  as  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici  termed  the  Eternal  City,  was  un- 
doubtedly a  turning-point  in  her  life.  Her  sugges- 
tive temperament  readily  took  on  the  colour  of  a 
new  environment.  In  the  course  of  the  three 
years  immediately  following,  as  wife  of  the  heir- 

301 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

apparent  to  the  duchy,  she  established  herself 
firmly  in  the  good  graces  both  of  her  husband's 
family  and  of  the  people  of  Ferrara.  And  during 
the  subsequent  fourteen  years  of  her  life,  as  reigning 
Duchess,  there  is  ample  testimony  that  she  retained 
the  admiration,  the  respect,  and  the  affection  of 
them  all. 


302 


XI 

A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

ALFONSO  OF  FEBRABA  survived  Lucrezia  fifteen 
years.  Like  our  George  II  he  so  honoured  his 
wife's  memory  that  he  would  not  marry  again, 
but  kept  mistresses  instead.  His  eldest  son  suc- 
ceeded him  as  Ercole  II  in  1534.  His  second  son, 
Ippolito  became  a  cardinal,  and  flourished  until 
1572.  Alessandro  died  in  infancy.  Francesco 
became  Marquis  of  Marralombarda  and  died  at 
the  age  of  sixty-two  in  1578.  His  only  daughter, 
Elenora  died  a  nun,  in  the  Convent  of  Corpus 
Domini  in  1575.  The  Este  dynasty  came  to  an  end 
with  the  death  of  Lucrezia's  grandson,  Alfonso  II, 
in  1597.  The  later  history  of  Giuffre,  Prince  of 
Squillace,  Alexander  VI's  youngest  son  by  Vanozza, 
is  unknown,  but  eventually,  at  some  unascertained 
date,  his  princedom  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
family  of  his  eldest  brother,  Giovanni  of  Gandia. 
The  mysterious  "  Infans  Romanus,"  Giovanni 
Borgia,  who  for  some  technical  ecclesiastical  reason 
was  first  legitimised  by  Alexander  VI  as  a  son  of 
Cesare,  and  then  immediately  acknowledged  for  a 
son  of  his  own  by  an  unnamed  Roman  spinster,  sank 
into  comparative  obscurity.  In  1501,  when  the 
child  was  three  years  of  age,  Alexander,  who 

303 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

certainly  provided  for  his  bastards  royally,  created 
for  him  two  dukedoms,  Camerino,  which  Cesare 
had  just  stolen  from  the  Varani,  giving  the  title 
to  one,  and  the  city  of  Nepi,  together  with  thirty- 
six  other  places,  forming  the  other.  But  when 
Julius  II  succeeded  to  the  Papal  throne  in  1503 
the  boy's  titles  and  property  were  all  confiscated. 
From  1505  to  1508,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was  being 
educated  at  Bari  in  company  with  Lucrezia's  son, 
Rodrigo,  Duke  of  Bisceglia.  Then  he  disappears 
from  our  ken  for  some  nine  years,  until  1517,  when, 
coming  from  Naples  and  being  shipwrecked  near 
Pesaro,  he  took  up  his  abode  for  a  short  time  at 
the  court  of  Lucrezia  in  Ferrara.  In  1518  he 
went  off  to  seek  his  fortune  at  the  Court  of  France, 
and  we  do  not  hear  of  him  again  for  twelve  years 
more,  when  he  put  in  an  appearance  at  Rome  and 
instituted  a  suit  for  the  recovery  of  the  duchy 
of  Camerino,  then  in  the  possession  of  a  young  girl 
who  was  heiress  of  the  Varani  family.  It  is  satis- 
factory to  know  that  he  lost  his  suit  and  had  to 
pay  the  costs,  which,  of  course,  was  what  he  richly 
deserved.  Nothing  is  known  of  his  subsequent 
doings,  but  when  he  died  at  the  age  of  forty-nine 
in  1547  his  property,  which  was  not  very  consider- 
able, was  divided  amongst  the  surviving  children 
of  Lucrezia,  of  the  Duke  of  Gandia,  and  of  Cesare 
Borgia. 

Cesare  Borgia  left  only  one  legitimate  child,  a 
daughter  named  Eloise,  who  was  twice  married, 
first  to  Louis  de  la  Tremouille,  and  secondly  to 
Philippe  de  Bourbon,  Comte  de  Busset.  Cesare's 
804 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

widow,  Charlotte  d'Albret,  Duchess  of  Valentinois, 
retired  from  the  world,  devoted  herself  to  works 
of  piety,  and  died  in  1514.  Two  illegitimate 
children  of  Cesare's  appear  to  have  been  taken  care 
of  by  Lucrezia  in  Ferrara ;  a  son,  Girolamo  Borgia, 
who  married  a  lady  of  the  Ferrarese  nobility,  and 
a  daughter,  Camilla  Lucrezia,  who  became  a  nun, 
and  who  at  the  time  of  her  death  in  1573  was 
Abbess  of  San  Bernardino.  There  were  probably 
more,  but  the  only  one  of  whom  we  find  any 
mention  is  a  priest,  calling  himself  Don  Luigi 
Borgia,  who  appeared  at  the  Court  of  France  in 
1550  and  obtained  a  hundred  ducats  from  the 
King  by  way  of  recognition  of  Cesare  Borgia's 
services  to  the  French  Crown. 

A  Roman  branch  of  the  House  of  Borgia  which 
had  been  settled  in  Velletri  from  the  time  of 
Calixtus  III,  or  earlier,  produced  a  cardinal 
nearly  three  centuries  after  the  death  of  Pope 
Alexander  VI  in  the  person  of  Stefano  Borgia, 
who  was  born  at  Velletri  in  1731.  He  was  a 
learned  ecclesiastic,  much  given  to  archaeology 
and  the  collection  of  engraved  gems,  medals, 
manuscripts,  and  rare  books,  who  was  raised  to 
the  purple  by  Pius  VI  in  1789.  One  of  his  col- 
leagues in  the  Sacred  College  was  Prince  Henry 
Benedict  Stuart,  grandson  of  our  James  II,  who 
was  driven  from  the  English  throne  by  the  revolu- 
tion of  1688.  In  1788  Prince  Charles  Edward,  the 
young  Pretender,  died,  and  his  brother,  the  cardinal, 
who  was  then  Vice- Chancellor  of  the  Holy  See, 
claimed  to  be  by  divine  right  the  sovereign  of  the 

u  305 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

land  of  his  ancestors.  He  made  no  attempt  to 
enforce  this  claim,  contenting  himself  with  striking 
a  medal  bearing  his  effigy  and  surrounded  by  the 
legend  :  "  Henry  the  Ninth,  of  Great  Britain, 
France,  and  Ireland,  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith, 
Cardinal-Bishop  of  Tusculum  "  ;  although,  in  his 
last  will  and  testament,  he  was  good  enough  to 
bequeath  the  sovereignty  of  these  realms  to  Anna 
Maria  of  Orleans,  daughter  of  Henrietta  Stuart, 
who  had  married  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  But  in 
1799  Cardinal  Henry  Benedict  Stuart  was  in  great 
need  of  money,  owing  to  losses  caused  by  the 
French  Revolution,  and  his  friend,  Cardinal  Stefano 
Borgia,  by  means  of  diplomatic  negotiations  with 
certain  private  acquaintances  in  England,  was 
able  to  secure  for  the  impecunious  Stuart  an 
income  of  £4000  per  annum  from  the  Privy  Purse 
of  George  III.  It  is  said  that  if  this  Cardinal 
Stefano  Borgia  had  pleased  to  exert  himself  in 
the  year  1800  he  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
elected  to  the  Papal  Chair.  Had  this  happened, 
it  would  have  fallen  to  the  lot  of  a  Borgia  to 
consecrate  Napoleon  as  Emperor  in  1804,  and  also 
to  have  had  his  territories  taken  away  from  him 
in  1809  by  that  later  adventurer,  whose  meteoric 
career,  though  on  a  vastly  greater  scale,  bears 
much  resemblance  to  that  of  Cesare  Borgia. 

Cardinal  Stefano's  brother,  Gianpaolo  Borgia, 
married  the  Countess  Alcmena  Baglioni-Malatesta 
of  Perugia,  heiress  of  two  of  the  principal 
Romagnian  families  which  had  suffered  so  severely 
at  the  hands  of  Cesare  Borgia.  The  Borgia  have 
306 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

always  been  remarkably  prolific,  and  Gianpaolo 
kept  up  the  family  tradition  by  producing  eighteen 
children.  The  youngest  of  these,  Francesco,  who 
was  born  in  1794,  by  a  second  marriage  in  1822 
established  his  house  in  Milan,  where  it  is  now 
represented  by  his  grandson,  Count  Francesco 
Borgia. 

It  is  rather  strange  that  Giovanni,  the  murdered 
Duke  of  Gandia,  should  be  the  only  one  of  Pope 
Alexander's  children  to  found  a  family,  but  it 
is  far  more  strange  that  from  this  luxury-loving 
and  libidinous  race  there  should  spring,  in  the 
person  of  Pope  Alexander's  great-grandson  Fran- 
cesco, an  ascetic  saint,  celebrated  throughout 
Christendom  as  "  the  most  illustrious  of  all  con- 
querors of  the  appetities  and  passions  of  our 
common  nature."  The  murdered  Duke  left  two 
children,  a  son  named  Juan  and  a  daughter 
named  Isabella.  Their  mother  married  again,  but 
after  being  left  a  widow  for  the  second  time  she 
became  a  nun.  Her  daughter  soon  followed  her 
example  and  also  became  a  nun  in  the  same 
convent.  But  her  son,  Don  Juan,  had  two  wives 
(successively  of  course)  and  no  less  than  fourteen 
children.  It  was  a  prosperous  family,  for  of  the 
six  daughters  four  married  nobles  and  grandees 
of  Spain,  and  two,  who  remained  unmarried, 
entered  the  Church  and  became  Lady  Abbesses, 
whilst  of  the  eight  sons  two  became  cardinals, 
two  viceroys,  one  an  archbishop,  one  an  abbot, 
one  died  young,  and  one  became  General  of 
the  Order  of  Jesus,  and  was  ultimately  placed 

807 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

by    Pope    Clement    XI   in    the    Calendar    of    the 
Saints. 

Don  Juan,  third  Duke  of  Gandia,  was  noted  for 
his  piety  and  virtue,  and  his  first  wife,  Dona  Maria 
of  Aragon,  a  grand- daughter  of  Ferdinand  the 
Catholic  and  therefore  cousin  to  the  Emperor 
Charles  V,  was  a  model  Christian  matron.  Their 
eldest  son,  Francesco,  who  was  born  on  October  28, 
1510,  only  seven  years  after  the  death  of  his 
infamous  great-grandfather,  consequently  grew  up 
in  an  atmosphere  of  piety.  The  first  words  he 
tried  to  pronounce  were  Jesus,  Mary,  God.  At  a 
very  early  age  he  showed  great  facility  in  repeating 
the  sermons  he  had  heard,  and  one  day  he  gathered 
his  friends  together  and  preached  to  them  from 
a  pulpit  of  his  own  construction  in  so  impressive 
a  manner  that  his  hearers  believed  him  to  be 
inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Even  his  pious 
mother  thought  he  went  too  far  and  devoted 
himself  too  much  to  religious  matters.  She  told 
him  that  when  she  had  asked  God  for  a  son  she 
had  wanted  a  duke,  not  a  monk,  and  suggested  that 
instead  of  confining  his  interests  to  the  hearing 
of  sermons  and  the  collecting  of  pictures  of  saints, 
he  ought  to  be  learning  how  to  manage  a  sword 
and  a  horse.  Probably  there  was  some  other  secret 
influence  in  the  household  encouraging  him  to  per- 
severe in  his  devotions,  for  it  is  recorded  that 
when  his  mother  died  in  1520  this  precociously  pious 
child  of  ten  retired  to  one  of  the  turrets  of  the 
Castle  of  Gandia  and  "  used  the  discipline,"  that 
is  to  say,  scourged  himself  severely. 
308 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

In  1523,  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  young  Don 
Francesco  de  Borja  went  as  page  of  honour  to  the 
Infanta  Dona  Catalina,  the  Emperor's  sister,  at 
Tordesillas,  where  he  became  a  great  favourite 
amongst  the  ladies.  When  Dona  Catalina  was 
married,  two  years  later,  to  the  King  of  Portugal, 
Francesco's  father,  who  was  much  troubled  by 
the  boy's  hankering  after  a  religious  life,  sent  him 
to  complete  his  education  under  the  eye  of  his 
maternal  uncle,  Don  Juan  of  Aragon,  Archbishop 
of  Saragossa.  The  uncle  seems  to  have  been  much 
of  the  father's  way  of  thinking,  and  saw  to  it  that 
rhetoric  and  philosophy  and  theology  were  duly 
alternated  with  lessons  from  the  riding-master 
and  proper  practice  in  all  the  accomplishments  of 
a  young  cavalier.  One  of  his  earliest  biographers, 
Cardinal  Cien-Fuegos,  relates  that  one  day,  when 
the  young  nobleman  was  seventeen  or  eighteen 
years  of  age,  he  happened  to  be  slowly  riding 
along  the  principal  street  of  Alcala,  when  his 
attention  was  attracted  by  a  poorly  clad  man 
who  was  being  led  to  prison  by  the  guards  of  the 
Vicar-General.  The  man  looked  up  at  the  splendid 
young  hidalgo  ;  their  eyes  met ;  and  thus,  with  a 
single  glance,  declares  the  cardinal,  Ignatius  Loyola 
took  possession  of  the  soul  of  Francesco  Borja. 
If  so,  Francesco  was  blissfully  unconscious  of  the 
momentous  fact,  and  rode  on  his  way  unthinking 
and  undisturbed. 

In  1528  the  Duke  of  Gandia  removed  his  eldest 
son  and  heir  to  Madrid,  where  he  soon  became 
one  of  the  brightest  ornaments  of  the  Court  of 

309 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

his  cousin  Charles  V.  Both  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  showed  great  partiality  for  him  and 
treated  him  almost  as  if  he  were  a  son.  He  is 
described  as  tall,  graceful,  and  dignified,  with  a 
high  forehead,  an  aquiline  nose,  a  small  mouth, 
a  delicate,  bright-coloured  complexion,  grey, 
almond-shaped  eyes,  and  curly  brown  hair. 
Under  the  care  of  the  good  worldly-wise  Arch- 
bishop of  Saragossa  he  had  become  a  proficient 
in  all  knightly  exercises.  He  could  master  intract- 
able horses  that  would  allow  nobody  else  to  ride 
them,  his  strength  and  skill  obtained  prizes  both 
in  the  bull-ring  and  the  tournament,  there  was  no 
keener  sportsman  amongst  the  train  who  went 
out  hunting  with  the  Emperor,  and  he  was  a 
special  adept  in  falconry.  He  was  also  a  cultivated 
musician,  composing  music  as  well  as  playing  on 
several  instruments,  and  he  was  a  lively  con- 
versationist. But  beneath  all  this  his  aspirations 
towards  the  monastic  life  persisted  with  un- 
diminished  ardour.  In  after  years,  the  saint 
referred  to  this  period  as  his  life  of  vanity  and 
sin;  but  nobody  else  would  have  so  described  it. 
He  refused  to  join  in  the  gambling  which  was  one 
of  the  principal  amusements  of  the  court,  he 
assembled  his  household  every  evening  for  prayers, 
and  his  valet  testified  that  on  all  occasions  of 
special  temptation  he  wore  a  hair  shirt.  Whilst 
following  his  quarry  in  the  hunting  field,  or  re- 
ceiving a  prize  from  the  Queen  of  Beauty  in  the 
tournament,  he  might  well  have  said  with  the 
Sir  Galahad  of  Arthur's  Court : 
310 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

More  bounteous  aspects  on  me  beam, 
Me  mightier  transports  move  and  thrill ; 

So  keep  I  fair  thro*  faith  and  prayer 
A  virgin  heart  in  work  and  will. 

In  1529  the  young  man  became  enamoured  of 
one  of  the  Empress's  maids  of  honour,  Eleanora 
de  Castro,  a  lady  remarkable  both  for  her  beauty 
and  her  piety.  His  father  was  averse  to  the 
match,  deeming  nothing  less  than  a  princess  of 
the  royal  house  of  Aragon  a  suitable  bride  for  the 
future  Duke  of  Gandia.  But  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  favoured  the  young  couple,  and  the 
father  was  induced  to  give  his  consent.  Francesco 
was  accordingly  married  at  the  age  of  nineteen, 
and  immediately  afterwards  the  Emperor  created 
him  Marquis  of  Lombay. 

In  1531  Pope  Clement  VII  issued  a  Bull  granting 
a  number  of  special  privileges  to  the  House  of 
Borja  by  way  of  reward  for  the  Duke  of  Gandia's 
services  to  the  Holy  See.  Power  was  conferred  on 
any  confessor  they  might  select  to  absolve  them 
from  the  gravest  ecclesiastical  censures  or  penalties  ; 
to  commute  the  fasts  of  the  Church  into  alms- 
giving ;  and,  once  in  a  year,  to  absolve  them  from 
any  oath  or  vow  ;  all  cases,  it  appears,  usually 
reserved  for  the  decision  of  the  Pope  himself. 
They  were  granted  special  indulgences  for  the  hour 
of  death  ;  and  for  every  visit  to  a  church  or  an 
altar,  and  for  every  Mass  celebrated  by  a  duly 
qualified  member  of  the  family  indulgences  equal 
to  those  of  certain  altars  in  Rome.  They  received 

311 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

permission  to  eat  meat  in  Lent,  on  other  fasts 
when  it  is  forbidden,  and  on  Saturdays,  such 
permission  to  extend  also  to  their  guests  and 
servants.  They  were  privileged  to  receive  the 
Sacraments,  if  necessary,  within  prohibited  times, 
and  members  of  their  household  might  be  buried 
any  day  in  the  year,  Easter  Day  alone  excepted. 
Priests  of  the  House  of  Borja  received  permission 
to  recite  the  Breviary  when  they  pleased,  without 
observation  of  fixed  hours,  and  to  recite  it  all  at 
once  or  divide  it  at  their  pleasure.  And  ladies  of 
the  House  of  Borja  were  to  be  at  liberty  to  enter 
any  enclosure  of  nuns  once  a  month,  to  converse 
and  to  eat  with  the  inmates,  although  not  to 
remain  for  the  night.  Considering  the  reputation 
both  of  the  Duke  of  Gandia  and  of  his  eldest  son 
for  quite  remarkable  piety  and  punctilious  obser- 
vance of  all  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  their 
Church,  the  reason  for  some  of  these  special 
privileges  is  not  very  apparent,  at  least  to  the 
uninitiated. 

In  1535,  Francesco,  now  Marquis  of  Lombay, 
accompanied  Charles  V  on  a  visit  to  Portugal 
and  afterwards  on  a  campaign  in  Africa,  where  he 
so  distinguished  himself  that  the  Emperor  declared 
he  would  become  one  of  the  first  generals  of  his 
time — an  innocent  remark  in  which  one  of  his 
Jesuit  biographers  discovers  an  unconscious 
prophecy.  In  the  course  of  this  campaign 
Francesco  contracted  an  intermittent  fever,  which 
racked  him  severely,  and  set  him  reflecting  on 
the  tortures  of  Purgatory.  During  his  con- 
312 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

valescence  he  read,  or  had  read  to  him,  spiritual 
books  and  lives  of  the  saints.  In  the  following 
year  he  accompanied  the  Emperor  on  a  campaign 
in  Provence,  and  once  more  distinguished  himself 
as  a  soldier.  Then,  for  the  greater  part  of  two 
years,  he  remained  quietly  at  home. 

In  1539  occurred  an  event  which  profoundly 
affected  the  tenor  of  his  life.  At  Toledo,  on  May  1, 
in  the  midst  of  the  brilliant  festivals  in  celebration 
of  the  Emperor's  victories,  the  Empress  suddenly 
sickened  and  died.  The  Marquis  and  Marchioness 
of  Lombay,  who  were  there  in  attendance  as  lord 
and  lady-in-waiting,  were  ordered  to  accompany 
the  body  to  Granada,  where  it  was  to  be  interred 
in  the  sepulchre  of  the  kings  of  Spain.  Francesco 
had  cherished  an  almost  filial  affection  for  the 
Empress,  and  as  the  burial  could  not  take  place 
until  the  coffin  had  been  opened  at  Granada  and 
some  grandee  of  the  highest  rank  had  testified  on 
oath  that  he  recognised  therein  the  mortal  remains 
of  his  deceased  Empress,  that  office  had  been 
entrusted  to  him.  The  journey  occupied  five  or 
six  days,  during  which  time  Francesco  never  left 
the  coffin,  lying  down  beside  it  on  the  pavement 
of  the  various  churches  where  it  was  necessary 
to  rest  by  the  way.  It  was  in  the  state  of  mind 
induced  by  this  trying  vigil  that  he  experienced 
the  first  of  the  supernatural  visions  with  which 
he  became  more  familiar  in  after  life.  As  the 
mournful  procession  entered  the  gates  of  Granada 
his  grandmother  (who  had  died  two  years  previously 
in  her  convent)  appeared  to  him,  accompanied  by 

313 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

a  number  of  angels  and  surrounded  by  a  shining 
light,  to  tell  him  the  time  had  arrived  for  him  to 
walk  in  the  way  that  God  had  ordained  for  him. 

On  May  7  the  Imperial  coffin  was  opened,  in 
presence  of  the  clergy  and  all  the  principal  officials 
of  the  city,  in  order  that  the  Marquis  of  Lombay 
might  take  oath  in  the  prescribed  form  that  he 
recognised  the  corpse  therein  as  that  of  his  sovereign 
lady,  the  Empress  Isabella.  But,  to  the  horror 
of  everybody  present,  decomposition  had  set  in 
so  rapidly  that  identification  was  impossible.  He 
was  unable,  of  course,  to  make  the  prescribed 
oath,  but  a  fresh  one  was  drawn  up,  and  the 
Marquis  swore  that  he  had  never  allowed  the  coffin 
out  of  his  sight,  by  night  or  day,  since  it  left 
Toledo.  Profoundly  affected,  Francesco  turned 
away  from  the  ghastly  sight  to  pray  and  scourge 
himself  in  private  until  the  time  for  the  funeral 
arrived.  When  that  took  place  two  days  later 
the  preacher,  an  eloquent  man,  delivered  so  impres- 
sive a  discourse  on  the  text  "  All  flesh  is  grass," 
that  Francesco  then  made  a  vow  that  if  he  should 
survive  his  wife  he  would  enter  some  religious 
Order  so  that  he  might  devote  himself  entirely 
to  the  service  of  a  Master  who  had  triumphed  over 
death. 

From  this  time  forth  everybody  could  see  that 
Don  Francesco  was  a  changed  man.  But  when 
shortly  afterwards  he  requested  permission  to 
retire  from  court  into  private  life  the  Emperor 
would  not  hear  of  it.  Charles  probably  thought  the 
occupations  of  an  active  career  would  soon  dis- 
314 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

sipate  his  young  cousin's  morbid  musings,  and, 
after  decorating  him  with  the  Cross  of  St.  James  of 
Compostella,  then  the  most  highly  prized  of  all 
chivalric  honours,  appointed  him  Viceroy  of 
Cateluna,  a  province  that  then  required  a  firm 
hand  to  reduce  it  to  order.  Accordingly,  towards 
the  end  of  November  1539,  the  Marquis  and 
Marchioness  of  Lombay  took  up  their  residence 
at  the  Viceregal  Palace  in  Barcelona.  He  was 
well  fitted  for  the  post,  being  by  all  accounts  at 
the  age  of  twenty-nine  an  accomplished  states- 
man, a  prudent  diplomatist,  an  able  soldier,  and 
a  finished  man  of  the  world.  His  administration 
was  admittedly  a  complete  success.  During  his 
reign  (1539-1543)  it  was  said  that  "  malice  and 
wickedness  were  banished,  whilst  justice,  prudence, 
and  temperance  prevailed."  His  first  business 
was  to  extirpate  the  brigands  who  infested  the 
country,  and  he  did  it  with  vigour;  but  it  must 
have  been  a  strange  experience  for  the  Barcelona 
officials  to  have  a  viceroy  who  could  not  bring 
himself  to  sign  the  death-warrants  of  these  mis- 
creants until  he  had  spent  some  hours  in  prayer, 
and  who  had  Masses  said  for  the  repose  of  the 
criminal's  souls  after  they  had  been  duly  executed. 
Bribery  was  abolished  in  the  courts  of  law,  and 
justice  made  equally  available  for  both  rich  and 
poor.  Foul  or  blasphemous  language  in  the  streets 
was  punished  by  fine.  And  education,  both 
spiritual  and  secular,  was  sedulously  cared  for 
throughout  the  whole  province.  He  said  after- 
wards that  this  vice-royalty  had  been  a  good 

315 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

apprenticeship  to  fit  him  for  General  of  the  Jesuits  ; 
it  had  taught  him  how  to  decide  important  ques- 
tions, to  settle  rival  claims,  to  adjust  differences, 
and  to  enter  into  both  sides  of  a  question. 

It  also  gave  him  an  opportunity  of  showing 
that  even  a  viceroy  may  be  in  the  world  and  yet 
not  of  it.  As  representative  of  his  Sovereign  it 
was  necessary  for  him  to  give  sumptuous  banquets, 
but  whilst  his  guests  were  regaled  with  the  choicest 
of  viands  and  of  wines,  the  viceroy  himself  dined 
off  a  single  dish  of  vegetables  with  two  or  three 
slices  of  bread,  and  drank  nothing  but  water. 
He  dispensed  with  the  services  of  a  valet,  spent 
from  four  to  six  hours  in  meditation  and  prayer 
nightly,  and  scourged  himself  so  severely  three 
times  a  week  that  the  walls  of  his  room  were 
bespattered  with  blood. 

In  January  1543  his  father  died,  and  Francesco, 
having  become  Duke  of  Gandia,  obtained  permis- 
sion to  give  up  his  vice-royalty  in  order  to  be 
able  to  attend  to  the  affairs  of  his  own  duchy 
and  other  numerous  estates  both  in  Spain  and 
Naples.  The  next  three  years  were  passed  quietly 
at  Gandia  with  his  wife  and  eight  children.  His 
first  public  act  was  to  rebuild  and  enlarge  the 
hospital,  and  he  afterwards  founded  and  endowed 
colleges  and  convents  and  schools  and  other  bene- 
volent institutions  for  the  benefit  of  his  vassals. 
His  children  were  brought  up  to  consider  themselves 
but  stewards  of  their  wealth,  and  he  gave  them 
large  sums  of  money  to  distribute  in  charity  accord- 
ing to  their  own  discretion.  Whenever  the  Holy 
316 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

Viaticum  was  carried  to  a  sick  person  it  was  always 
the  Duke's  custom  to  accompany  the  priests  on 
foot,  even  although  the  distance  were  several 
miles.  He  had  put  down  the  haughty  spirit  and 
pride  of  birth  which  he  believed  to  have  been  in 
earlier  life  one  of  his  besetting  sins.  And  he 
had  learned  to  deny  himself,  to  an  extent  that 
astonished  his  friends,  not  only  of  every  enjoyment 
that  the  most  ascetic  moralist  could  consider 
unlawful,  but  of  much  that  was  quite  lawful  as 
well  as  perfectly  harmless. 

And  now  a  severer  trial  awaited  him.  Towards 
the  end  of  1545  the  sweet,  gentle,  pious  wife  who 
had  been  his  beloved  and  worthy  helpmate  in  all 
good  works  for  seventeen  years,  lay  dangerously 
ill,  and  the  Duke  knelt  praying  for  her  recovery 
in  his  oratory.  After  he  had  poured  forth  his 
supplications  for  a  long  time,  the  figure  on  the 
crucifix  above  the  altar  seemed  to  speak  to  him, 
and  it  said  :  "If  thou  really  desirest  longer  life 
for  the  Duchess  I  will  grant  it,  but  I  warn  thee  it 
will  not  be  well."  It  was  a  terrible  decision  to  be 
compelled  to  make,  but  to  the  Duke  of  Gandia 
the  Court  of  Heaven  was  as  real  as  the  Court  of 
Madrid,  and  he  had  no  more  doubt  that  his  wife 
was  destined  to  shine  for  evermore  in  the  former 
than  that  she  had  shone  for  a  brief  period  in  the 
latter.  His  answer,  which  he  repeated  to  his 
confessor  afterwards,  was  given  at  great  length, 
but  the  substance  of  it  was  :  "  Not  my  will,  but 
Thine  be  done."  After  hanging  for  a  week  or  two 
between  life  and  death  the  Duchess  died,  in 

817 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

January  1546.  To  the  day  of  his  own  death, 
twenty-six  years  alterwards,  Francesco  firmly 
believed  in  the  reality  of  the  divine  voice  from 
the  crucifix  in  his  oratory. 

Whilst  the  Castle  of  Gandia  was  still  hung  with 
its  mourning  draperies,  Father  Peter  Faber  arrived 
there  with  a  message  from  Ignatius  Loyola. 
Francesco  had  heard  of  Loyola  some  three  or  four 
years  previously,  during  his  vice-royalty,  when 
Father  Anthony  Araoz  had  paid  a  visit  to  Barce- 
lona. He  had  been  much  impressed  by  what  he 
had  heard,  and  had  corresponded  with  and  sought 
advice  from  Loyola  ever  since.  Now  the  founder 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus  desired  him  to  establish 
a  Jesuit  College  in  Gandia,  which,  of  course,  he 
set  about  doing  with  great  ardour  and  liberality. 
Father  Faber  had  also  brought  with  him  the 
Master's  book  of  "  Spiritual  Exercises,"  which  the 
Duke  of  Gandia  began  to  study  with  great  earnest- 
ness. The  Society  of  Jesus,  then  in  its  infancy, 
though  poor  and  little  known,  and  with  every  one 
of  its  members  under  vow  never  to  accept  any 
ecclesiastical  dignity,  had  already  aroused  con- 
siderable hatred,  but  the  Duke  of  Gandia  was  the 
type  of  man  to  whom  its  rule  of  life  made  a  strong 
appeal.  Doubtless  he  had  many  discussions  on 
the  subject  with  Father  Texeda,  his  confessor, 
and  plainly  showed  how  his  inclinations  lay. 
However  this  may  be,  one  morning  Father  Texeda 
had  a  vision  in  which  the  Blessed  Virgin  appeared 
and  directed  him  to  tell  the  Duke  it  was  her  wish 
that  he  should  enter  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  order 
318 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

to  be  of  greater  service  to  the  Church.     The  Duke 
was   overwhelmed  with  confusion  to  find  one  so 
unworthy  as  himself  singled  out  for  special  notice 
by   the    Blessed    Virgin,    and,    as    his    habit    was, 
retired   to    his    oratory   to    pray.     Whilst    on    his 
knees  before  a  statue  of  the  Madonna,  the  image 
spoke    to    him,   saying :    "  Francesco,  hesitate  no 
longer  ;    enter  the  Society  of  my  Son."     Of  course 
Francesco    hesitated    no    longer,    and    of    course 
Ignatius  Loyola  did  not  hesitate  to  receive  him. 
But  the  founder  of  the  Jesuits  was  too  wise  to 
grant  admission  to  his  Order  instantly  on  applica- 
tion.     The   Duke   was   advised  to  keep  even   his 
intention   secret   until   he   had   chosen   a   suitable 
wife   for   his   eldest   son,    settled   the   rest   of   his 
children  under  satisfactory  guardianship,  and  com- 
pleted the  buildings  which  he  then  had  in  hand. 
Moreover,    he   was   enjoined   to   apply   himself  to 
the   systematic   study   of  theology,   in  order  that 
he  might  take  a  doctor's  degree  before  his  entry 
into  the  Society.     The  Duke  did  as  he  was  bid  ; 
in  fact,  from  this  time  forth  he  regarded  Ignatius 
Loyola  as  his  religious  superior,  whose  voice  was 
as  the  voice  of  God. 

In  1547,  whilst  Charles  V  was  absent  in  Italy, 
his  son  Philip,  as  Regent,  convoked  an  assembly 
of  the  Cortes,  at  which  the  Duke  of  Gandia  was 
obliged  to  be  present.  The  Regent,  who  admired 
Gandia  no  less  than  his  father  did,  was  bent  on 
retaining  him  at  court,  and  pressed  him  to  accept 
the  office  of  Grand  Master  of  the  Royal  Household. 
The  Duke  declined,  and  got  away  to  his  home  as 

319 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

soon  as  practicable,  but  in  order  to  escape  being 
compelled  to  accept  some  high  secular  office  under 
the  Emperor  he  implored  Ignatius  Loyola  to  allow 
him  to  make  his  profession  at  once.     Loyola,  of 
course,   had  no  intention  of  losing  his  illustrious 
proselyte,    and   so   towards   the   end   of   the   year 
a  Papal  Brief  was  procured  permitting  him  to  take 
the  irrevocable  vows  without  any  public  acknow- 
ledgment, and  to  remain  in  the  world  four  years 
afterwards    in    order    to    arrange    his    affairs    and 
provide  for  the  future  of  his  children.      Ignatius 
now   regulated   the   actions   of   his   somewhat   too 
enthusiastically   ascetic  convert.      The  Duke  was 
ordered  to  moderate  his  austerities,  to  relax  his 
excessive  fasting,  and  to  use  for  study  some  of  the 
time  he  was  in  the  habit  of  devoting  to  meditation 
and  prayer.    Borja  was  told  that  he  had  gone  too 
far  in  weakening  his   digestion   and  reducing  his 
physical  strength  ;    he  must  therefore  change  his 
regimen,  and  be  content  to  inflict  upon  his  body 
only  that  amount  of  suffering  which  was  necessary 
to  render  it   subservient  to  the  spirit.      But  the 
Duke   could   never  be   persuaded   to  lie   down  to 
rest  until  he  had  made  reparation  for  the  sins  of 
the  day  by  some  penance  and  mortification,  and 
he  now  discontinued  the  use  of  a  bed,  lying  down 
to  sleep  on  the  steps  of  an   alcove  in  his  room 
which    were    covered    with    an    ordinary    carpet. 
By   the   end   of   1549   he   had   taken   his   doctor's 
degree,    and   having   also   married    his   eldest   son 
and    two    of    his    daughters,    provided    his    other 
children  with  trustworthy  guardians,  finished  the 
320 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

erection  of  his  public  buildings,  and  pensioned 
his  aged  and  infirm  servants,  he  was  ready  to 
make  his  formal  entry  into  the  brotherhood. 

As  Julius  III,  a  stranger  to  him,  had  now  suc- 
ceeded Paul  III,  a  friend  of  his  family,  in  the 
Papal  Chair,  Francesco  had  less  fear  of  opposition 
to  his  designs ;  and  on  August  31,  1550,  he  set 
out  for  Rome.  As  he  rode  out  of  the  gate  of  his 
city  he  turned  for  one  last  look  at  the  towers 
and  battlements  of  the  castle  of  his  fathers,  and 
then,  setting  his  face  straight  forward,  passed  out 
into  the  open  country  chanting  the  hundred  and 
fourteenth  Psalm :  "  When  Israel  went  out  of 
Egypt,  and  the  House  of  Jacob  from  a  strange 
people."  The  honour  and  ceremony  with  which 
his  relatives,  Duke  Alfonso  of  Ferrara  and  Duke 
Cosimo  de'  Medici,  insisted  on  entertaining  him 
were  repugnant  to  his  spirit  and  necessitated 
extra  humiliation.  One  night  at  an  inn  a  disturbed 
page  got  out  of  bed  and  went  to  the  door  of  his 
master's  room.  The  Duke  was  "taking  the  dis- 
cipline." In  the  silence  of  the  night  the  youth 
heard  every  blow  as  it  fell,  and,  after  counting 
up  to  five  hundred,  crept  in  awestruck  silence 
away.  Francesco  then  wrote  to  Ignatius  Loyola 
that  he  proposed  to  enter  Rome  by  night  in  order 
to  avoid  any  public  ceremony.  But  Ignatius 
knew  better  the  propagandist  value  of  such  things. 
He  informed  Borja  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
decline  a  public  reception  without  offending  many 
estimable  persons,  and  that  his  interior  repugnance 
in  submitting  to  it  would  gain  him  all  the  merit 

x  321 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

of  humility,  as  well  as  those  also  of  obedience  and 
charity.  Consequently  the  illustrious  convert  was 
met  by  the  ambassador  of  Spain,  together  with 
many  cardinals  and  princes  and  nobles,  who, 
attended  by  their  large  retinues,  conducted  him 
in  solemn  procession  to  the  doors  of  the  Jesuit 
House.  The  Pope  invited  him  to  stay  as  a  guest 
in  the  Vatican,  but  he  humbly  begged  to  be 
excused.  All  the  cardinals  and  prelates  then  in 
Rome  called  upon  him,  and  he  was  obliged  to 
return  their  visits,  but  he  kept  himself  as  secluded 
as  possible,  and  under  Loyola's  direction  devoted 
the  remains  of  his  fortune  to  the  establishment 
of  the  Jesuit  college  de  Propaganda  Fide  which 
afterwards  became  so  famous  in  Rome. 

The  consent  of  the  Emperor  was  necessary 
before  he  could  divest  himself  of  his  rank  and 
titles,  and  on  January  15,  1551,  he  wrote  to 
Charles  V  earnestly  begging  permission  to  lay 
them  down.  But  whilst  he  awaited  an  answer, 
intelligence  leaked  out  that  it  was  the  intention 
of  Pope  Julius  III  to  command  his  acceptance  of 
a  cardinal's  hat.  To  avoid  the  offer  of  this,  Gandia 
fled  back  from  Rome  to  Spain,  and,  after  making 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  Castle  of  Loyola,  the  home  of 
the  family  of  his  revered  superior,  he  buried 
himself  in  the  recently  established  Jesuit  college 
at  Onate  to  await  the  decision  of  the  Emperor. 
Charles's  answer  arrived  on  February  12,  giving 
the  required  permission  with  great  regret,  and 
shrewdly  intimating  that  such  a  strange  example 
would  find  more  admirers  than  imitators.  The 
322 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

proper   legal   processes   were   at   once   drawn   up, 
all  his  titles,  all  his  worldly  goods,  all  his  territorial 
rights,   were  solemnly  renounced,   and  the  some- 
time   Duke    of    Gandia,    with    beard    shaved    off, 
tonsured,  and   clad   in   the   humble   habit   of    his 
Order,  was  no  longer  a  noble,  a  knight,  or  even  a 
Spanish  gentleman,  but  plain  Father  Francisco,  S.J. 
Having  made  careful  preparation  for  Holy  Orders 
Francisco  was  ordained   priest  by  the  Bishop  of 
Calahorra   on    Saturday   in   Whitsun   week,    1551. 
The  fame  of  his  extraordinary  piety  had  spread 
far  and  wide,  so  that  when  he  said  his  first  public 
Mass  on  November  15  in  the  principal  church  of 
Vergara,    that    large    building    was   found   all  too 
small  for  the  vast  crowd  that  flocked  to  the  place, 
and  an  altar  had  to  be  set  up  in  the  open  country 
outside  the  walls  of  the  town,  where  he  celebrated 
from  nine  in  the  morning  until  three  in  the  after- 
noon.     We  are  told  by  some  of  his  biographers 
that   he   was   endowed  with   the   gift  of  tongues, 
for  not  only  did  the  sound  of  his  voice  penetrate 
further  than  was  humanly  possible,  but  each  one 
of  the  vast  crowd  composed  of  divers  nationalities, 
including  the  Basque,  heard  the  discourse  in  his 
own  native  language.     The  Duke  of  Gandia  had 
been   called   "  the   modern   Narcissus,"   and   com- 
pared to  Apollo  for  his  physical  beauty,  but  all 
this  had   now  disappeared,  and  Father   Francisco 
at  the  age  of  forty- one,  thin,  emaciated,  his  eyes 
dimmed   by  vigils   and   weeping,    his   scanty   hair 
streaked  with  grey,   and  his  fine  complexion  re- 
placed  by   a   waxen   pallor,   looked   twenty   years 

323 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

older  than  he  really  was.  Yet  he  had  a  sweet 
expression,  a  winning  charm  of  manner,  a  pleasing 
voice,  a  ready  flow  of  language,  a  fund  of  apt 
illustration,  the  fierce  intensity  of  the  fanatic,  and 
at  the  same  time  all  the  grace  and  dignity  of  the 
Spanish  hidalgo.  His  sermons  are  said  to  have 
been  admirable  compositions  in  themselves,  but 
even  though  they  had  been  destitute  of  any  of 
the  graces  of  oratory,  they  would  undoubtedly 
have  produced  a  powerful  effect  as  the  earnest 
utterances  of  a  man  of  conspicuous  piety  who  was 
known  to  practise  what  he  preached. 

Most  of  his  preaching  was  done  during  his 
residence  at  Onate  from  1551  to  1554,  but  the 
life  there  included  other  duties  than  preaching. 
His  superior,  evidently  thinking  that  a  Spanish 
grandee  would  need  a  great  deal  more  humiliation 
than  he  had  voluntarily  bestowed  upon  himself, 
set  him  to  do  a  disproportionate  amount  of  laborious 
menial  labour.  He  was  told  off  to  assist  in  digging 
the  foundations  of  a  new  wing  of  the  house,  to  help 
the  masons  in  sawing  and  carrying  stone,  to  wheel 
manure  and  distribute  it  over  the  vegetable  garden, 
and  indoors  he  was  set  to  chop  wood,  light  fires, 
and  help  the  cook  by  washing  up  plates  and  dishes. 
He  did  all  this  quite  obediently  and  cheerfully, 
without  the  slightest  complaint ;  but  when  Ignatius 
Loyola  heard  of  it,  and  found  that  it  had  per- 
manently weakened  the  already  exhausted  body 
of  Francisco,  he  promptly  put  a  stop  to  such 
severity.  But  Francisco  continued  to  practise 
gratuitous  mortifications  upon  himself.  He  was 
324 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

in  the  habit  of  making  excursions  amongst  the 
surrounding  villages,  with  a  wallet  on  his  shoulders, 
to  solicit  alms.  When  given  dry  crusts  and  other 
waste  matter,  he  would  ask  leave  to  eat  of  these 
for  his  dinner  instead  of  a  fresh-cut  slice  from 
the  loaf.  He  put  sand,  cinders,  and  pebbles  into 
his  shoes.  He  patched  and  darned  his  garments 
with  his  own  hands.  He  slept  in  his  day  clothes 
on  straw  upon  the  floor  ;  and  he  frequently  pierced 
his  flesh  with  a  sharp-pointed  instrument.  He 
refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  money,  so 
that  before  his  death  he  had  lost  all  knowledge 
of  the  relative  value  of  different  coins.  People 
insisted  on  speaking  of  him  as  "  the  Holy  Duke," 
but  he  would  never  permit  himself  to  be  called  by 
any  title,  and  if  letters  came  to  him  so  addressed 
he  would  return  them,  endorsed,  "  Not  for  me. 
Francisco,  S.J." 

In  1552  Ignatius  Loyola  commanded  him  to 
leave  his  retreat  at  Ofiate  from  time  to  time  in 
order  to  seek  persons  desirous  of  serving  God  and 
helping  them  to  set  their  households  in  order. 
In  this  way  he  went  on  a  visit  to  the  Viceroy  of 
Navarre  at  Pamplona,  and  afterwards  spent  some 
months  in  evangelising  expeditions  in  Castile  and 
Andalusia.  Then  he  received  an  urgent  invitation 
to  visit  the  Court  of  Juan  III  of  Portugal,  to 
whose  wife  Catalina,  it  will  be  remembered,  he 
had  been  page  of  honour  when  a  boy.  Both  the 
King  and  the  Queen  sent  a  nobleman  of  high 
rank  to  meet  him  at  the  frontier  and  escort  him 
to  Lisbon.  When  he  approached  the  capital  the 

325 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

Bishop  of  Lisbon  and  the  Papal  Nuncio,  with 
many  dukes,  marquises,  and  other  great  lords, 
rode  out  to  receive  him  ceremoniously,  and  when 
he  appeared  in  the  doorway  of  the  audience 
chamber,  the  King  uncovered  his  head,  and  both 
King  and  Queen,  rising  from  their  thrones, 
advanced  to  meet  him.  The  whole  court,  we  are 
told,  profited  greatly  by  his  teaching  and  example 
during  this  visit ;  but  his  own  poor  body  probably 
suffered  severely  in  the  privacy  of  his  chamber 
to  counterbalance  the  effect  on  himself  of  all  this 
deference  and  honour. 

Father  Francisco's  residence  at  Onate  came  to 
an  end  in  October  1554,  when  he  was  appointed 
Commissary-General  of  the  Society.  As  this  pro- 
motion gave  him  greater  freedom,  and  as  the  first 
use  he  made  of  that  freedom  was  to  increase 
his  penances  and  mortifications,  Ignatius  Loyola 
appointed  a  superior  who  was  to  overrule  Francisco 
in  all  matters  relating  to  bodily  health.  Francisco 
was  an  admirable  recruiting-sergeant,  and  founded 
a  large  number  of  Jesuit  colleges  in  Spain  and 
Portugal.  No  one  ever  did  more  to  inculcate  and 
diffuse  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  by  sermons 
and  exhortations,  by  distributing  pictures  of  her 
throughout  the  land,  and  by  establishing  con- 
fraternities of  her  name.  There  was  not  a  shrine 
of  Our  Lady  in  Europe,  it  was  said,  at  which 
Francisco  had  not  offered  a  lamp.  Though  abnor- 
mally strict  and  severe  towards  himself,  he  sternly 
rebuked  those  who  were  wanting  in  charity  and 
consideration  for  those  placed  under  their  charge. 
326 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

He  was  the  first  to  establish  the  Noviciates  of  the 
Society,  and  in  dealing  with  these  his  diplomatic 
training  stood  him  in  good  stead.  His  example 
had  attracted  a  number  of  grandees  and  nobles 
who  were  not  all  endowed  with  his  patience  and 
ascetic  enthusiasm.  But  he  never  got  rid  of  a 
novice  whom  he  judged  capable  of  being  made 
into  a  good  Jesuit.  One  young  nobleman  could 
not  do  without  a  valet.  Father  Francisco  imme- 
diately found  a  novice  who  had  been  a  valet 
before  his  entrance  into  the  Society,  and  appointed 
him  to  wait  upon  the  helpless  young  gentleman. 
But  after  a  few  weeks  he  became  ashamed  of 
being  the  only  one  thus  waited  upon  and  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  do  without  such  assistance. 
Another  requested  permission  to  go  out  into  the 
world  again  because  he  could  not  bear  the  suffo- 
cating atmosphere  of  the  little  room  in  which 
the  novices  slept,  and  could  not  exist  without  a 
change  of  linen  every  day.  Father  Francisco 
suavely  acknowledged  how  trying  it  must  be, 
and  immediately  ordered  the  provision  of  an 
abundance  of  linen  and  a  separate  large  room. 
Before  many  days  were  over  this  novice  also 
became  ashamed  of  his  exclusive  privileges,  and 
humbly  begged  to  wear  the  poorest  attire  and  to 
be  lodged  in  the  most  uncomfortable  dormitory. 

In  1555  Francisco  once  more  had  some  trouble 
to  avoid  being  raised  to  the  purple.  The  Emperor 
and  Pope  Julius  III  had  agreed  together  that  this 
saintly  Borja  must  be  made  a  cardinal.  Ignatius 
Loyola  no  sooner  heard  of  the  threatened  calamity 

827 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

than  he  hastened  to  the  Pope  to  protest  against 
it  on  the  ground  of  the  injury  it  would  do  to  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  Julius,  who  had  no  wish  to 
injure  the  Society,  which  he  had  always  hitherto 
supported  and  favoured,  was  in  a  difficulty  because 
he  had  pledged  his  word  to  the  Emperor.  Ignatius 
therefore  suggested  that  his  Holiness  should  make 
the  offer  to  Father  Francisco  without  commanding 
him  to  accept  it,  and,  this  being  done,  Francisco 
was  able  to  decline  the  proffered  honour.  In 
July  1556  the  great  Ignatius  Loyola  died,  and 
was  succeeded  in  the  Generalship  of  the  Society 
by  Father  lago  Laynez.  Shortly  afterwards  the 
Emperor  Charles  V  abdicated  and  retired  to  the 
monastery  of  St.  Just ;  when,  having  been  pre- 
judiced against  the  Jesuits  by  some  of  their 
inveterate  enemies,  he  wrote  to  Father  Francisco 
to  visit  him,  without,  however,  informing  his 
cousin  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  suppress 
the  Society  throughout  Spain.  In  the  course  of 
three  or  four  days'  intimate  conversation,  the 
saint  was  able  to  remove  the  unfavourable  impres- 
sion that  had  been  made  on  Charles's  mind,  and 
the  threatened  suppression  did  not  take  place. 
A  year  later,  Charles,  on  his  deathbed,  summoned 
Francisco  to  him  again,  but  the  priest  only  arrived 
in  time  to  preach  his  old  sovereign's  funeral  sermon. 
In  the  summer  of  1557  Francisco  had  been 
dangerously  ill  whilst  travelling  about  his 
evangelising  work.  In  1559  he  lay  ill  of  fever  for 
some  months  at  Evora  and  at  Lisbon.  In  1560 
he  suffered  severely  from  neuralgia,  lost  the  use 
328 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

of  his  limbs,  and  seemed  threatened  with  paralysis  ; 
when  these  symptoms  disappeared,  he  was  afflicted 
with  ulcerous  sores  in  various  parts  of  his  body. 
But  he  seems  to  have  been  in  much  better  health 
in  1561,   when  he  was  summoned  to  Rome  and 
appointed  Vicar- General  of  his  Order.     When  he 
preached   in  the  church  chiefly  attended  by  the 
Spaniards     in     Rome    the    congregation    usually 
included  a  number  of  cardinals,  ambassadors,  and 
Roman  nobles,  and  although  he  always  spoke  in 
Castilian  we  are  assured  that  even  those  who  did 
not   understand    a   word   of   that   language   were 
greatly  edified.     He  was  now  generally  regarded 
as  a  saint  and  spoken  of  as  el  Beato,  and  already 
he   had   been   credited   with   the   performance   of 
a  number  of  miracles.     Some  people  saw  rays  of 
light  emanating  from  his  body  when  he  officiated 
at   the   altar,   and   some   testified  that   they   had 
seen  him  raised  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
ground.      One  or  two  of  the  stories  are  credible 
enough,     and     scarcely     require     a     supernatural 
explanation ;    the  following,  for  example.     Many 
of  the  Jesuit  Houses  which  he  founded  remained 
for   some  time   very   poorly   endowed.      One   fine 
summer's  day  he  arrived  about  noon  at  the  College 
of    St.    Andrew   in    Valladolid,    when   he   learned 
that  there   was  only   a  small  quantity   of  bread 
in  the   house   and   no   money.      He    immediately 
retired  to  the  chapel  to  pray,  as  his  custom  was, 
and  when  he  came  out  he  ordered  the  bell  to  be 
rung  for  dinner  as  usual.    When  all  were  assembled 
he  said  grace  and  desired  the  Rector  to  distribute 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

equal  portions  of  the  two  small  loaves  amongst 
the  company.  Hardly  had  this  been  done  when 
there  was  a  loud  ringing  of  the  door-bell,  and  on 
opening  the  door  the  porter  beheld  an  old  man 
of  majestic  appearance  accompanied  by  a  youth 
of  surpassing  beauty.  The  young  man  presented 
a  large  basket  containing  meat,  fish,  eggs,  bread, 
and  wine,  and  the  old  man  handed  to  the  porter 
a  purse  filled  with  money.  The  mysterious  bene- 
factors would  not  give  any  name  nor  were  they 
ever  seen  again,  wherefore  the  Rector  and  his 
brethren  devoutly  believed  them  to  be  angels 
who  had  been  sent  in  answer  to  the  prayer  of 
Saint  Francisco. 

But  some  of  the  stories  which  are  related  in  all 
good  faith  by  his  Jesuit  biographers  will  perhaps 
be  accepted  for  true  by  few  persons  outside  the 
pale  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Father 
Francisco  always  carried  about  with  him  a  piece  of 
the  true  Cross,  which  had  been  given  him  by 
Charles  V.  Once,  when  the  Princess  Joanna, 
daughter  of  the  Emperor,  was  ill,  Francisco  dipped 
this  relic  into  a  glass  of  water,  which  instantly 
became  red,  as  if  mixed  with  blood.  This  in- 
carnadined water  was  given  to  the  sick  Princess 
to  drink,  and  she  recovered.  A  lady  who  also 
possessed  a  piece  of  the  true  Cross  was  much 
disturbed  by  having  the  genuineness  of  her  relic 
questioned,  and  consulted  Father  Francisco  on 
the  matter.  He  not  only  pronounced  for  its 
genuineness  at  a  glance,  but  proceeded  to  demon- 
strate the  fact  to  all  and  sundry.  Taking  it  up 
330 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

reverently  in  his  fingers  he  broke  the  wood  into 
two  pieces,  when  from  each  portion  there  fell 
several  drops  of  blood  which  stained  the  linen  in 
which  it  had  been  wrapped.  Francisco  was  once 
travelling  in  company  with  a  Jesuit  father  who 
had  a  great  reputation  as  an  eloquent  preacher. 
One  evening,  as  they  rested  at  an  inn,  two  of  the 
preacher's  front  teeth  were  knocked  out  by  some 
unparticularised  accident,  and  the  poor  man  was 
greatly  grieved  to  think  that  his  usefulness  in  the 
pulpit  was  ruined  at  a  blow.  But  Father  Francisco 
picked  up  the  fallen  teeth,  slipped  them  back  into 
their  bleeding  sockets,  and  there  they  remained  for 
the  remainder  of  the  preacher's  life,  as  neither  old  age 
nor  decay  had  any  effect  upon  them  afterwards. 

In  January  1565  Father  lago  Laynez  died  and 
Father  Francisco  de  Borja  was  chosen  General 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  The  history  of  the  remain- 
ing seven  years  of  his  life  is  merged  in  that  of  the 
powerful  Order  to  which  he  belonged.  His 
biographer  Verjus  says  that  St.  Ignatius  designed 
it  and  laid  its  foundations,  Father  Laynez  built 
the  walls,  and  St.  Francisco  de  Borja  roofed  it  in 
and  completed  all  its  interior  arrangements.  The 
Roman  college  owed  both  its  origin  and  its  celebrity 
to  him,  and  all  succeeding  ones  have  been  shaped 
according  to  his  model.  His  influence  was  enor- 
mous, and  the  spread  of  the  Society  under  his 
rule  is  said  by  its  historians  to  have  been  literally 
"  miraculous."  When  Pius  V  ascended  the  Papa) 
throne  in  1566  he  did  not  wait  for  Father  Francisco 
to  call  upon  him,  but  stopped  his  coronation 

331 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

procession  on  its  way  to  the  Lateran  in  order 
that  he  might  pay  his  respects  to  the  Jesuit 
General.  Pius  V  maintained  a  close  association 
with  General  Francisco  de  Borja.  He  employed 
Jesuits  to  preach  before  himself  and  his  cardinals, 
to  attend  to  the  morals  of  his  palace  guards,  to 
preach  to  the  hetairce,  and  to  convert  the  Jews. 

In  1570  the  Pope  sent  Francisco  on  a  mission 
to  Spain  and  Portugal  in  company  with  his  own 
nephew,  Cardinal  Alessandrino,  and  a  number  of 
prelates,  six  of  whom  afterwards  became  cardinals. 
The  General  of  the  Jesuits  was  welcomed  with 
great  delight  in  Barcelona,  where  twenty  years 
previously  he  had  been  beloved  as  viceroy.  When 
he  crossed  the  frontiers  of  Valencia,  his  eldest  son, 
now  Carlos  Duke  of  Gandia,  with  other  relatives 
and  many  neighbouring  nobles,  came  to  meet 
him.  They  alighted  from  their  horses  and 
kissed  his  feet,  imploring  him  to  visit  his  family 
domain  of  Gandia.  But  he  refused,  sending  them 
away  as  soon  as  he  could  to  pay  their  respects 
to  the  Pope's  legate,  whilst  he  continued  his 
journey  by  another  road.  A  great  crowd  came  to 
welcome  him  in  Valencia,  and  he  was  received 
with  equal  honour  in  Madrid  and  in  Lisbon.  It 
then  became  necessary  for  him  to  pay  a  visit  to 
the  French  Court  at  Blois.  But  travelling  during 
the  severe  winter  weather  told  upon  him  heavily, 
and  in  February  1572,  what  proved  to  be  his  last 
illness  began  to  show  itself.  He  travelled  by  easy 
stages  back  towards  Rome.  The  Duke  of  Savoy 
sent  physicians  to  attend  upon  him.  His  nephew, 
332 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

Alfonso  II,  detained  him  at  Ferrara,  waited  upon 
him  as  if  he  had  been  his  own  father,  and  sent 
him  on  his  way  in  a  royal  litter.  He  reached  Rome 
on  October  28,  and  three  days  after  "  full  of  joy 
at  the  thought  of  quitting  this  world  "  he  died. 
In  1617  his  remains  were  removed  from  their 
resting-place  in  Rome  to  a  chapel  of  his  Order 
in  Madrid.  In  1623  an  Apostolic  Commission 
reported  that  the  miracles  ascribed  to  him  had  been 
fully  verified.  In  1654  Urban  VIII  issued  a  Bull  of 
Beatification,  and  in  1671  Clement  XI  solemnly  pro- 
claimed his  canonisation.  In  1680  his  relics  were 
transferred  to  a  gorgeous  church  in  Madrid  built 
by  the  Duke  of  Lerma  in  memory  of  his  ancestor. 

It  is  a  relief  to  be  able  to  say  of  a  Borgia,  whether 
we  agree  with  his  ascetic  ideal  or  not,  that  he  was 
honourable,  just,  and  virtuous,  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  his  fellow  men  and  careless  of  his  own. 
Nepotism  was  one  of  the  most  pronounced  here- 
ditary failings  of  the  family,  and  when  this  passion 
came  to  be  exercised,  without  let  or  hindrance, 
by  persons  in  the  position  of  Calixtus  III  and 
Alexander  VI  it  was  productive  of  far-reaching 
disastrous  results.  But  Francisco  de  Borja  had 
conquered  this  failing,  as  he  had  conquered  every 
other  feeling  which  he  conceived  to  be  a  failing. 
As  nothing  could  stand  out  in  stronger  contrast  with 
the  conduct  of  those  representatives  of  the  family 
who  occupied  the  Papal  throne,  one  or  two 
examples  may  be  given.  When  a  dispute  about 
some  property  occurred  between  Francisco's  son, 
Duke  Carlos  of  Gandia,  and  the  Admiral  of  Aragon, 

333 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BORGIAS 

the  Emperor  asked  Father  Francisco  what  he 
would  wish  him  to  do  in  the  matter.  Francisco, 
without  going  into  the  merits  of  the  case,  pleaded 
for  strict  justice,  but,  in  case  it  were  a  matter  in 
which  favour  must  be  shown  to  one  side  or  the 
other,  he  begged  that  it  might  be  shown  not  to  his 
own  son  but  to  the  Admiral,  who,  he  believed,  needed 
it  more.  On  another  occasion,  Francisco's  third 
son,  Alvarez,  needed  a  Papal  dispensation  to 
enable  him  to  make  a  brilliant  marriage.  Nothing 
was  done  in  the  matter  for  sometime  until  Pius  V 
happened  to  discover  accidentally  that  the  young 
man  on  whose  behalf  the  dispensation  was  asked 
was  a  son  of  the  Jesuit  General,  whom  he  held 
in  such  high  esteem.  He  then  expressed  his  sur- 
prise that  Francisco  had  never  approached  him 
on  the  subject.  Father  Francisco  replied  that 
he  had  received  many  importunities  to  plead  with 
his  Holiness,  but  had  said  nothing  because  he 
believed  that  the  Pope  would  grant  the  dispensa- 
tion without  any  interference  if  he  judged  it  to 
be  for  the  good  of  the  persons  concerned  and  for 
the  glory  of  God.  But  now  the  matter  had  been 
broached  he  would  say  this  much  :  if  it  appeared 
to  his  Holiness  in  any  way  inexpedient,  he  hoped 
the  dispensation  would  not  be  given,  as  he  had 
more  at  heart  the  interests  of  the  Holy  See  than 
the  advantage  of  his  own  children. 

None  of  these  children  ever  became  known 
beyond  the  limits  of  their  native  land.  A  great- 
grandson  of  the  saint,  named  Caspar  de  Borja, 
became  a  cardinal  in  1611  at  the  age  of  twenty-two. 
334 


A  SAINT  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BORGIA 

After  acting  as  Viceroy  in  Naples,  he  is  said  to  have 
aspired  to  the  Papacy,  but  he  died  in  1645  at  the 
age  of  fifty- six,  disappointed  of  this  supreme 
dignity.  A  great-great-grandson  of  the  saint, 
named  after  him  Francisco,  a  man  of  piety  and 
learning,  became  a  cardinal  in  1700  and  died 
two  years  afterwards.  The  last  of  the  descendants 
of  Giovanni  Borgia,  the  murdered  son  of  Pope 
Alexander  VI  and  Vanozza  de  Catenai,  died 
without  issue  as  recently  as  1882,  when  the  line 
became  extinct.  Corvo,  in  his  "Chronicles  of  the 
House  of  Borgia,"  quoting  from  El  Blason  de 
Espana,  tells  us  that  he  was  ten  times  grandee  of 
Spain  of  the  First  Class,  decorated  with  the  Golden 
Fleece  and  numerous  other  knightly  orders, 
possessed  of  three  Principalities,  seven  Dukedoms, 
ten  Marquisates,  fourteen  Countships,  and  one 
Viscounty ;  and  we  are  assured  that  his  name 
was :  "  Don  Marino  Tellez-Giron  y  Beaufort 
Spontin  Pimental  de  Quifiones  Fernandes  de 
Velasco  y  Herrera  Diego  Lopez  de  Zufiiga  Perez 
de  Guzman  Sotomayor  Mendoza  Maza  Ladron 
de  Lizana  Carroz  y  Arborea  Borja  y  Centelles 
Ponce  de  Leon  Benavides  Enriquez  Toledo  Salm- 
Salm  Hurtado  de  Mendoza  y  Orozco  Silva  Gomez 
de  Sandoval  y  Rojas  Pimerilal  y  Osorio  Luna 
Guzman  Mendoza  Aragon  de  la  Cerda  Enriquez 
Haro  y  Guzman."  What  it  was  found  convenient 
to  call  him  for  short  we  are  not  informed. 


335 


INDEX 

ADRIANA  DA  MILA,  68,  69,  81,  109 

Adriano,  Cardinal  of  Corneto,  208,  209,  210 

Albert!,  Leo  Battista,  38 

Albret,  Amadeo  d',  Cardinal,  152 

Albret,  Charlotte  d',  Duchess  of  Valentinois,  139,  141,  235,  805 

Albret,  Jean  d',  King  of  Navarre,  235,  236,  237 

Alexander  VI,  Pope,  see  Borgia,  Rodrigo 

Alfonso,  Duke  of  Bisceglia,  134,  140,  149,  murder  of,  150-152 

Alfonso  I,  Duke  of  Ferrara,  160,  161,  162,  174,  175,  176,  179, 
247,  251,  259,  260-261,  262,  263,  264,  265,  266,  267, 
269,  271,  272,  273,  274,  275,  277,  279,  280,  281,  282, 
283,  284,  285,  286,  287,  288,  301,  303 

Alfonso  I,  of  Naples,  5,  42,  49,  57,  58,  59 

Alfonso  II,  of  Naples,  4,  16,  82,  85,  86,  90,  97,  105,  110,  134 

Allegres,  Ivo  d',  158 

Alviano,  Bartolomeo  d',  226,  227 

Amboise,  d',  Cardinal  of  Rouen,  141,  147,  224,  225,  232,  241 

Anne,  Duchess  of  Brittany,  25,  135 

Appiano,  Jacopo,  of  Piombino,  156,  223,  234 

Aretino,  Donate,  127 

Arnold  of  Brescia,  8 

Ariosto,  Ludovico,  251,  267,  285,  299 

Atti,  Isotta  degli,  38 

Aubigny  d',  General,  156 

Aubusson,  Pierre  d',  Cardinal,  25 

BAGLIONI,  the,  of  Perugia,  33,  173,  190 

Baglioni  Gianpaolo,  34,  35,  152,  187,  191,  198,  223,  226,  227, 

279,  280 

Bajazet,  Sultan,  15,  24,  27,  30,  87,  88,  89 
Balue,  La,  Cardinal,  22 
Barbo,  Pietro,  see  Paul  II,  Pope 

Bembo,  Pietro,  Cardinal,  208,  268-269,  289,  290,  295 
Bentivogli,  the,  of  Bologna,  153,  174,  190 
Bentivoglio,  Giovanni,  154,  174,  192 
Bessarion,  Cardinal,  50,  63 
Borgia,  Angela,  187,  269-270 

Y  337 


INDEX 

Borgia,  Cesare,  birth,  67 ;  ecclesiastical  preferments,  69-70  ; 
made  Cardinal,  84 ;  escape  from  Charles  VIII,  98 ; 
youthful  characteristics,  107-108 ;  design  to  murder 
Giovanni  Sforza,  115  ;  murder  of  his  brother  Giovanni, 
121-125  ;  projects  of  marriage,  134  ;  abandonment  of 
ecclesiastical  career,  136  ;  journey  to  France,  137-138  ; 
marriage  to  Charlotte  d'Albret,  139,  141  ;  designs  on 
the  Romagna,  142 ;  capture  of  Imola  and  Forli,  142- 
143  ;  triumph  in  Rome,  145  ;  position  and  characteris- 
tics at  age  of  twenty-five,  145—146  ;  murder  of  the  Duke 
of  Bisceglia,  150-152  ;  conquest  of  the  Romagna,  152- 
154;  orgy  in  the  Vatican,  164;  charges  against,  in 
"Letter  to  Silvio  Savelli,"  182-183;  more  conquests, 
187-188  ;  Machia velli's  first  impressions  of,  189  ;  Revolt 
of  Condottiere  and  their  destruction  at  Sinigaglia,  190- 
197  ;  predominant  in  Italy,  205  ;  projects  of  a  Borgian 
monarchy,  206  ;  position  at  death  of  his  father,  218- 
221  ;  withdrawal  from  Rome,  222-223 ;  sides  with 
France  against  Spain,  223 ;  return  to  Rome  under 
Pius  III,  225-226 ;  forced  to  take  refuge  in  Castle 
of  St.  Angelo,  227  ;  loss  of  the  Romagna,  228-229  ; 
arrested  by  Julius  II,  231  ;  escape  to  Naples,  233 ; 
arrest  and  imprisonment  in  Spain,  234-235  ;  escape 
from  prison,  235-236 ;  death,  236-237 ;  character, 
238-243.  Also  mentioned,  17,  41,  161,  166,  167,  173, 
174,  184,  185,  186,  198,  199,  201,  202,  203,  204,  276, 
290,  294,  304,  305 

Borgia,  Francesco,  Cardinal,  171 

Borgia,  Count  Francesco,  307 

Borgia,  Gianpaolo,  306 

Borgia,  Giovanni,  Cardinal,  77,  85,  143 

Borgia,  Giovanni,  Second  Duke  of  Gandia,  67,  69,  82,  86,  105, 
106,  107,  109  ;  murder  of,  116-125,  307 

Borgia,  Giovanni,  "  Infans  Romanus,"  127,  128,  160,  188,  260, 
303-304 

Borgia,  Girolama,  66 

Borgia,  Giuffre,  Prince  of  Squillace,  67,  70,  80,  82,  86,  108, 
120,  141,  201,  223,  226,  290,  303 

Borgia,  Isabella,  66 

Borgia,  Juan  (or  Giovanni  the  Elder),  Cardinal,  107,  136,  204 

Borgia,  Lucrezia,  birth,  67  ;  under  care  of  Madonna  Adrians, 
68  ;  early  betrothals,  70  ;  marriage  to  Giovanni  Sforza, 
78,  81,  109  ;  visit  to  Pesaro,  110  ;  life  in  Rome,  113- 
114  ;  Pope's  design  for  her  divorce,  115  ;  Sforza  makes 
charges  of  incest,  126  ;  marriage  to  Alfonso  of  Bisceglia, 
134  ;  birth  of  son  Rodrigo,  149  ;  murder  of  her  second 

338 


INDEX 

husband,  150-152 ;  Regent  in  Vatican  during  Pope's 
absence,  159 ;  marriage  to  Alfonso  d'Este,  160-163, 
169 ;  dress  and  appearance,  167-168,  169-170 ;  her 
trousseau,  171  ;  journey  to  Ferrara,  172-174 ;  first 
meeting  with  third  husband,  174-175 ;  entry  into 
Ferrara,  178-179 ;  illness,  257-258 ;  Regent  during 
husband's  absence,  263-264 ;  patronage  of  literature 
and  art,  267-268 ;  her  letters  to  Bembo,  268-269  ; 
birth  of  son  and  heir,  275  ;  relations  with  Ercole  Strozzi, 
277-278  ;  death  of  her  son  Rodrigo,  286  ;  interest  in 
charitable  institutions,  287 ;  more  children,  288 ; 
correspondence  with  Trissino,  288-290 ;  death,  293 ; 
character,  294-302.  Also  mentioned,  112,  113,  244, 
255,  291,  303,  304 

Borgia,  Luis  Juan,  Cardinal,  54,  55,  58,  60 

Borgia,  Pedro  Luis,  Duke  of  Spoleto,  46,  54,  55,  56,  58,  59,  60 

Borgia,  Pedro  Luis,  1st  Duke  of  Gandia,  son  of  Alexander  VI, 
66,  69,  105 

Borgia,  Rodrigo,  son  of  Lucrezia,  149,  160,  260,  286,  304,  305 

Borgia,  Rodrigo,  Pope  Alexander  VI,  adopted  by  Calixtus  III, 
54 ;  made  Cardinal  and  Vice-Chancellor,  55  ;  Legate 
to  Spain,  63-64 ;  dissolute  private  life,  65-66  ;  his 
children  by  Vanozza,  67 ;  adulterous  connection  with 
Giulia  Farnese,  69,  111-113  ;  elected  to  Papacy,  71-73  ; 
description  of  person,  75-76  ;  nepotism,  77-78  ;  marries 
Lucrezia  to  Giovanni  Sforza,  78  ;  shifty  policy,  84-85  ; 
negotiations  with  Sultan  Bajazet,  87-88 ;  diplomacy 
with  Charles  VIII  in  Rome,  93-97 ;  joins  league 
against  France,  100  ;  attack  on  the  Orsini,  105—106 ; 
decides  on  divorcing  Lucrezia,  115  ;  projects  of  reform 
after  murder  of  his  son,  120  ;  charge  of  incest  against, 
126-127  ;  relations  with  Savonarola,  128-132 ;  policy 
directed  by  Cesare,  134 ;  abandons  Sforza  alliance 
for  France,  140  ;  raid  on  the  Gaetani,  147 ;  narrow 
escapes  from  death,  148-149 ;  agrees  to  partition  of 
Naples,  157;  plunder  of  the  Orsini,  Savelli  and  Colonna, 
159-160  ;  marries  Lucrezia  to  Alfonso  d'Este,  160-162  ; 
scandalous  amusements,  163 ;  charges  against,  in  "  Letter 
to  Silvio  Savelli,"  180-184 ;  further  measures  against  the 
Orsini,  199-201  ;  methods  of  raising  money,  203-205; 
death,  207;  suspected  poisoning,  208-211;  character, 
213-218.  Also  mentioned,  1,  4,  8,  18,  19,  21,  22,  28, 
29,  36,  37,  41,  47,  58,  60,  225,  228,  238,  242,  259,  260, 
262,  276,  294,  297,  300,  303,  333 

Borgia,  Stephano,  Cardinal,  305,  306 

Borja,  Alonzo,  see  Calixtus  III,  Pope 

339 


INDEX 

Borja,  Francesco  de,  Saint,  4th  Duke  of  Gandia,  birth,  308  ; 
precocious  piety,  308 ;  education,  309 ;  at  Court  of 
Charles  V,  310  ;  marriage,  311  ;  special  ecclesiastical 
privileges,  311-312  ;  effect  of  death  of  Empress  on, 
313-314  ;  Viceroy  of  Cateluna,  315-316  ;  becomes  Duke, 
316  ;  death  of  his  wife,  817  ;  connection  with  Ignatius 
Loyola,  318 ;  joins  Jesuits,  318 ;  gives  up  worldly 
titles  and  wealth,  323  ;  description  of,  323-324  ;  humble 
duties  and  demeanour,  324-325 ;  evangelising  work, 
325-327 ;  miracles  attributed  to,  329-331  ;  General 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  331  ;  mission  to  Spain  and 
Portugal,  332  ;  death  and  canonisation,  333 ;  last  of 
his  descendants,  335 

Borja,  Juan,  3rd  Duke  of  Gandia,  307,  308,  309,  316 
'Boccaccio,  Ferrarese  ambassador,  107,  108,  111 

Boniface  IX,  Pope,  8 

Boschetti,  Count,  272,  273 

Bracci,  Florentine  ambassador,  121,  123 

Brantome,  Seigneur  de,  138 

Buonvicini,  Domenico,  of  Pescia,  130,  131,  132 

Burchard,  John,  26,  28,  113,  119,  164,  199,  211,  239.     Pref.  vi. 

CAONOLO,  Nicolo,  169 

Calixtus  III,  Pope,  5,  9,  45,  46,  47,  48,  49-60,  213 

Cambray,  League  of,  280 

Canale,  Carlo,  68 

Capello,  Paolo,  239 

Capponi,  Piero,  89 

Capranica,  Domenico,  Cardinal,  43-47,  50,  56 

Cardinals,  power  and  splendour  of,  21-22 

Carlotta  of  Aragon,  134,  136,  139 

Carmagnola,  Francesco,  32—33 

Carri,  Dr.  Ludovico,  258,  259 

Carvajal,  Cardinal,  56,  232,  233 

Cassanova,  Cardinal,  218 

Castrano,  Cristoforo  di,  27 

Cerri,  Domemico,  214 

Cesarini,  Cardinal,  223 

Charles  V,  Emperor,  308,   310,   311,  312,  313,  314,  315,  322, 

327    328 
Charles  VIII,  of  France,  20,  25,  26,  71,  84,  85,  86,  87,  88,  89, 

90,  91,  92,  93,  94,  95,  96,  97,  98,  99,  100,  101,  102,  109, 

110,  111,  128,  130  ;  death  of,  133 
Cibo,  Franceschetto,  21,  23,  26,  28,  29,  79 
Cibo,  Giovanni  Battista,  see  Innocent  VIII,  Pope 
Cibo,  Lorenzo,  Cardinal,  71,  74 
340 


INDEX 

Clement  VIII,  Pope,  48 

Colonna,  the,  8,  9,  16,  17,  18,  19,  20,  44,  50,  52,  80,  86,  89,  99, 

118,  133,  135,  157,  159,  201,  221,  222,  227 
Colonna,  Cardinal,  71,  94,  140,  159 
Colonna,  Fabrizzio,  158,  283,  284,  285 
Colonna,  Mutio,  201 
Colonna,  Prospero,  91,  158,  223 
Comines,  de,  93 
Condottiere,  the,  30-33 
Cornazzano,  Antonio,  267 
Creighton,  Mandell,  18,  53,  121,  215,  231 
Croce,  Giacomo  Santa,  204 
Croce,  Giorgio,  67,  68 

DJEM,  Prince,  15,  24-28,  29,  87,  88,  92,  93,  95,  96,  99-100 
Doria,  Andrea,  195 

EGIDIO,  Cardinal,  of  Viterbo,  216 

Ercole  I,  Duke  of  Ferrara,  12,  15,  36,  48,  161,  162,  165,  168, 

170,  171,  176,  177,  244,   246,   247,   249,   250,  254,  255, 

256,  257,  258,  259,  261,  271 
Este,  the,  of  Ferrara,  8,  161 
Este,  Ferrante  d',  170,  172,  271,  272,  273,  274 
Este,  Giulio  d',  270,  271,  272,  273,  274 
Este,  Ippolito  d',  Cardinal,  83,  114,  165,  166,  167,  170,  267, 

270,  271,  272,  274,  278,  279,  282 
Estouteville,  Cardinal,  60,  91 
Eugenius  III,  Pope,  8 
Eugenius  IV,  Pope,  44,  45,  49 

FARNESE,  Alessandro,  Cardinal,  84,  105,  112,  114 

Farnese,  Giulia,  mistress  of  Pope  Alexander  VI,  68,  69,  81,  84, 

110,  112,  113,  217,  301 
Federigo,  of  Aragon,  79 
Federigo,  Duke  of  Urbino,  16,  17,  42-43 
Ferdinand,  the  Catholic,  of  Spain,  20,  24,  29,  82,  139,  157, 

218,  234,  280,  281 
Ferrante,  of  Naples,  5,  9,  16,  20,  21,  24,  32,  50,  58,  59,  74,  79, 

80,  82,  83,  85 
Ferrantino,  of  Naples,   30,   88,   90,   91,  97,  99,  102,  116,  123, 

134,  135,  138,  139,  140,  150,  157,  158 
Ferrara,  state  of,  in  Fifteenth  Century,  244-259 
Ferrari,  Cardinal,  of  Modena,  181,  184,  191 
Ferrer,  St.  Vincent,  49 
Foix,  Gaston  de,  282 
Francesco  di  Puglia,  130 

341 


INDEX 

GAETANI,  the,  147 

Gaetani,  Giacomo,  148 

Gasparino  of  Verona,  66,  76 

Gastine,  Louis,  125 

Gheraldo,  Fra,  Patriarch  of  Venice,  72 

Gilbert,  William,  252,  255,  297,  299,  301 

Giovio,  Paolo,  99,  208,  277,  292 

Giustiniani,   Antonio,    Venetian   ambassador,    199,    204,    205, 

211,  230 
Gonsalvo  de  Cordova,  100,  106,  158,  202,  218,  227,  232,  233, 

234,  235 
Gonzaga,  Francesco,  Marquis  of  Mantua,  102,  162,  212,  213, 

218,  259,  273,  293 
Gonzaga,  Isabella,  Marchioness  of  Mantua,  36,  167,  176,  177, 

178,  259,  272,  273 
Gravina,  Duke  of,  196,  197 
Gregorovius,  Ferdinand,  36,  54,  67,  94,  99,  122,  159,  179,  216, 

243,  251,  279,  297-298,  299,  301 
Gregory  the  Great,  Pope,  7 
Guasconi,  Giovanni,  272,  273,  274-275 
Guicciardini,  Francesco,  93,  158,  208,  212,  213,  214,  296,  298, 

299 
Guidobaldo,  Duke  of  Urbino,  17,  105,  106,  119,  120,  173,  187, 

188,  191,  192,  194,  223,  232,  239,  269 

HAWKWOOD,  Sir  John,  31 
Hildebrand,  afterwards  Gregory  VII,  7 
Hunyadi,  John,  53 

INFESSURA,  81 

Innocent  VIII,  Pope,  5,  9,  20,  22,  23,  24,  26,  27,  28,  29,  30,  37, 

64,  71,  212 
Isabella  of  Aragon,  wife  of  Gian-Galeazzo  Sforza,  4,  88,  260, 

286 

Italy,  state  of,  in  Fifteenth  Century,  1,  2 
Five  principal  States  of,  3-20 

JULIUS  II,  Pope,  see  also  Rovere,  Giuliano  della,  Cardinal, 
34,  216,  227,  228,  229,  230,  231,  232,  238,  236,  242,  275, 
279,  280,  281,  282,  283,  284,  285,  286,  304 

Julius  III,  Pope,  321,  322,  327,  388 

LANCOL,  Pedro  Luis,  see  Borgia,  Pedro  Luis 

Rodrigo,  see  Borgia,  Rodrigo 
Leece,  Roberto  da,  35 
342 


INDEX 

Leo  X,  Pope,  285,  288,  293.     See  also  Medici,  Giovanni  de' 

Leonello,  Duke  of  Ferrara,  248-249 

Louis  XII,  of  France,  133,  135,  136,  137,  138,  139,  140,  141, 
142,  146,  147,  154,  155,  157,  161,  189,  190,  191,  202, 
203,  206,  218,  223,  225,  236,  280,  281,  282 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  309,  318,  319,  320,  321,  322,  324,  326,  328 

Lucius  II,  Pope,  8 

Lunate,  Cardinal,  91,  95 

MACAULAY,  Lord,  36 

Machiavelli,  Nicolo,  18,  31,  34,  36,  144,  153,  188,  189,  193,  214, 

219,  220,  229,  230,  240,  241,  242,  243,  298,  299 
Malatesta,  the,  of  Rimini,  8,  33,  239 
Malatesta,  Pandolfo,  153,  229 
Malatesta,  Roberto,  11,  16,  17 
Malatesta,  Sigismondo  Pandolfo,  35,  38 
Manfredi,  the,  of  Faenza,  8,  229 
Manfredi,  Astorre,  153,  195 
Manutius,  Aldus,  267,  295 
Marini,  Generoso,  Dr.  of  Medicine,  252,  his  strange  diploma, 

252-254 

Martin  V,  Pope,  44,  49,  54 
Mathias  of  Hungary,  24 

Maximilian  I,  Emperor,  100,  139,  140,  206,  207,  280,  281,  282 
Medici,  Cosmo  de',  59 

Medici,  Giovanni  de',  Cardinal,  29, 74, 114.   See  also  Leo  X,  Pope 
Medici,  Lorenzo  de',  3,  6,  14,  15,  20,  23,  28,  30,  36,  101,  301 
Medici,  Piero  de',  6,  29,  89,  130,  155,  187 
Metarazzo,  208 

Michelotto,  Don,  151,  191,  196,  204,  218,  220,  282 
Michiel,  Cardinal,  71,  203,  204 
Mila,  Luis  Juan  de,  see  Borgia,  Luis  Juan 
Mirandola,  Count  Antonio  Maria,  119 
Mocenigo,  Pietro,  Doge  of  Venice,  36 
Mohammed  II,  Sultan,  3,  15,  24 
Montefeltri,  the,  of  Urbino,  8,  33,  190 
Montone,  Braccio  da,  31,  32,  33 
Morelli,  Giovanni,  40 

NICASTRO,  Bishop  of,  220 
Nicholas  II,  Pope,  7 
Nicholas  V,  Pope,  3,  45,  50,  52 

ORDELAFFI,  the,  of  Forli,  8,  229 

Orleans,  Louis,  Duke  of,  see  also  Louis  XII,  8,  100,  102 

Oliverotto,  da  Fermo,  158,  190,  194,  196,  197 

343 


INDEX 

Ollivier,  Abbe,  214 

Oreo,  Don  Ramiro  d',  178,  174,  186,  193,  224 

Orsini,  the,  8,  17,  19,  33,  44,  50,  51,  52,  60,  80,  105,  106,  107, 
118,  119,  121,  133,  135,  152,  155,  189,  190,  194,  195, 
200,  201,  202,  221,  222,  223,  226,  227,  241 

Orsini,  Cardinal,  52,  56,  63,  71,  189,  199,  200,  201 

Orsini,  Fabio,  220,  221 

Orsini,  Giovanni  Giordano,  105,  202,  226,  227 

Orsini,  Giovanni  Paolo,  160,  192,  196,  197 

Orsini,  Napoleone,  52 

Orsini,  Orsino,  68,  112 

Orsini,  Virginio,  6,  20,  23,  29,  79,  80,  82,  83,  90,  91,  99,  105 

PALLAVICINI,  Cardinal,  71 

Papacy,  origin  of  temporal  power  of,  6-8 

Pastor,  Ludwig,  43,  122,  149,  215 

Paul  II,  Pope,  10,  11,  19,  37,  60,  62,  63,  64 

Petrucci,  Pandolfo,  of  Siena,  197,  198 

Piccinnino,  Giacomo,  10,  32,  57 

Piccolomini,  Enea  Silvio,  see  Pius  II,  Pope 

Piccolomini,  Francesco,  Cardinal,  see  Pius  III,  Pope 

Pinturricchio,  113 

Pitigliano,  Count,  90,  99 

Pius  II,  Pope,  9,  35,  38,  61,  62,  65-66 

Pius  III,  Pope,  225,  226,  227,  241 

Pius  V,  Pope,  331,  332,  334 

Popes,  political  position  of,  6-8 

Prete,  El,  167,  169 

Pucci,  Lorenzo,  112 

RELIGIOUS  spirit  in  Italy  during  Renascence,  39-47 

Riario,  Pietro,  Cardinal,  12,  13 

Riario,  Girolamo,  13,  14,  15,  17,  18,  19,  23 

Riario,  Rafael,  Cardinal,  28,  71,  114,  226 

Robusto,  Giorgio,  267 

Roscoe,  William,  121,  289,  296,  297,  299,  301 

Rovere,  Francesco  della,  see  Sixtus  IV,  Pope 

Rovere,  Francesco  Maria  della,  187,  194,  195,  228,  286 

Rovere,  Giovanni  della,  13,  14,  87,  107,  133,  194 

Rovere,  Giuliano  della,  Cardinal,  12,  19,  20,  22,  23.  64,  71,  79, 

80,  82,  86,  90,  94,  95,  107,  137,  141,  224,  225,  226,  227, 

241.     See  also  Julius  II,  Pope 
Rovere,  Lionardo  della,  12 
Rovere,  Riario  della,  Cardinal,  72 
Rucellai,  Giovanni,  40-41 
344 


INDEX 

SANAZARRO,  298,  299 

Sancia  of  Aragon,  wife  of  Giuffre  Borgia,  108,  114,  141,  150, 

223,  301 

Sanseverino,  Cardinal,  91,  94,  111,  119,  140 
Sanuto,  Marino,  97,  208,  209,  210 
Savelli,  the,  10,  16,  20,  33,  152,  159,  160,  201,  241 
Savelli,  Cardinal,  71,  94 
Savelli,  Silvio,  201 ;  Letter  to,  containing  summary  of  charges 

against  the  Borgia,  180-184 

Savonarola,  Girolamo,  89, 101,  128;  career  and  death,  128-132 
Scarampo,  Cardinal,  10,  56 
Sensuality  of  the  Renascence,  35—37 
Sforza,  Anna,  175 
Sforza,  Ascanio,  Cardinal,  19,  22,  30,  71,  72,  78,  84,  86,  90,  91, 

92,  94,  95,  110,  111,  118,  119,  120,  121,  139,  140,  147, 

201,  224 

Sforza,  Caterina,  13,  18,  23,  89,  142,  143,  145 
Sforza,  Francesco,  Duke  of  Milan,  10,  82,  59 
Sforza,  Galeazzo  Maria,  4 
Sforza,  Gian-Galeazzo,  4,  84,  88 
Sforza,  Giovanni,  of  Pesaro,  78,  81, 109,  110,  115,  116,  121,  126, 

152,  173,  223,  228,  286,  298 
Sforza,  Ludovico,  Duke  of  Milan,  4,  14,  75,  78,  80,  88, 100,  102, 

110,  111,  120,  139,  140,  144,  146,  147,  239 
Sforza,  Muzio  Attendolo,  31,  32,  33 
Sixtus  IV,  Pope,  4,  11,  12,  13,  14,  15,  16,  17,  J.8,  20,  37,  54, 

63,  64,  69,  215,  216 
Soderini,  Cardinal,  188,  211,  230 
Solafenati,  Cardinal,  72 
Statecraft  of  the  Renascence,  34 
Strozzi,  Alessandra,  39 
Strozzi,  Ercole,  250,  268,  269,  275-276 ;    murder  of,  276-279, 

295,  299-300 

Strozzi,  Tito,  250,  268,  269,  276,  295 
Stuart,  Prince  Henry  Benedict,  Cardinal,  305-306 
Symonds,  J.  A.,  42 

TEBALDEO,  Antonio,  250,  267,  268 

Thousane,  L.,  99 

Tiberzio,  Roman  rebel,  9,  10 

Tremouille,  La,  146 

Trissino,  Gian-Giorgio,  288-290 

Trivulzio,  General,  30,  90,  99 

Troccio,  Francesco,  204 

URBINO,  Elisabetta,  Duchess,  of  173,  177 

z  345 


INDEX 

VANOZZA  DE  CATENAI,  mistress  of  Pope  Alexander  VI,  66,  67, 

68,  109,  116,  223,  290-293,  301 
Varani,  the,  of  Camerino,  33,  188,  191,  223,  260 
Venosa,  Medical  Bishop  of,  258,  259 
Villari,  Pasquale,  127,  216 
Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  146,  185 

Vitelli,  the,  of  Citta  di  Castello,  33,  155,  194,  195,  223 
Vitelli,  Vitellozzo,  106,  152,  158,  187,  189,  190,  196,  197 
Visconti,  Philippe  Maria,  Duke  of  Milan,  32 
Volterranus,  Rafael,  216 

YRIARTE,  Charles,  125 


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